The thoughts that wandered in and out seemed irrational at a distance but so rational as I lived the nightmare. The nightmare I speak of is not one that many would like to experience. “A senseless shooting” they called it. I thought about this statement often. Senseless…what does that word really mean? Most dictionaries define the term Senseless as without real meaning or purpose. I knew that my husband’s death was unnatural, premature and not of God. My husband’s death pushed me into the middle of a spiritual war I was not prepared for.  

On September 16th (2013), Washington (CNN) reported – “A mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday left at least 12 people dead, plus a suspect, in what Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier called “one of the worst things we’ve seen.”
My husband, Frank, was one of the thirteen people that were reported dead. After my husband’s death, I thought I had lost my mind.

Here again, in our nation, we have a mass shooting. Is this of God? No!  

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10.

God did not orchestrate this horrific act. Yet, you might be asking why God would allow this? Why would a loving and good God allow this to occur?

God is sovereign and has a sovereign will. He is in control of everything. Nothing that happens is outside of His sovereign will (Ephesians 1:11). There is also the commanded will of God. God commands us to love with our whole heart, soul, mind, and our neighbor as ourselves. (Mark 12:28-31). “Thou shalt not kill.” Exodus 20:13. In any horrific event like this, the commanded will of God has been broken.  

We need to be in prayer for these families that have lost their loved ones; their hearts are broken. Pray for the Lord to heal their heart and bind up the wounds and that they can come to know God and His love. Pray for the healing of our nation.  

“…pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much..” James 5:16