Over the weekend, the campus of John Brown University faced a difficult situation – dealing with the loss of one of our own.
Such an event is never easy, and we recognize that many members of the University are affected by this on a very personal level. While we clearly wish this tragedy had never happened, we at the Threefold Advocate are thankful and appreciative for the way the community has come together.
During the Sunday evening service, we watched people be the body of Christ for one another. Students held friends in long hugs. Both friends and faculty members prayed with those hurting. The pain and the hurt of the situation are real. And yet in the midst of the darkness, the light of Christ’s love poured from person to person.
As Chaplain Rod Reed said Sunday night, this can be a time of asking “why?” We join him in urging the University community to simply be there for those hurting rather than necessarily trying to answer those questions.
To those who knew the student personally – our prayers and compassion go out to you.
To those who are not directly impacted – we encourage you to be there for your friends who are or for those who know them and are seeking to comfort them.
In Luke 4, the evangelist tells of Christ reading from the book of Isaiah the promise that God’s anointed one came “to heal the brokenhearted.” Jesus then declared that he was the fulfillment of that prophesy. While our emotions do not always seem to agree with that truth, we pray that you may feel the comfort of Christ.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1 of the comfort which God gives us that we may then comfort others. Remember to show that love and concern not only last Sunday but also each and every day, especially in the coming weeks. Let us live and be the community which God created us to be.