Joyful is today’s word for the Lent word-a-day challenge.
Joyful?
I don’t feel joyful.
It’s awful seeing terror attacks anywhere but when it’s on your turf it’s somehow so much worse. London is my capital city. This is my country, these are my people. We have been violated.
The media reports leave me cold, empty and sick.
Only a month ago, Adi and I were right there. ‘I’ve never seen Scotland Yard,’ I said. We stood outside and took photos, before wandering past Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster. Only a month ago.
How can someone plough into school children? How can someone think deliberately driving into fellow human beings is right? Stabbing, killing, maiming, destroying. Oh God, oh God.
I’m hollow inside for those who’ve died, for their families and friends. Life can never be the same.
And the wounded. ‘Catastrophic’ was the word used by reporters. Great damage and suffering being caused. Life has forever been changed for a handful of people today.
Eye witnesses, MPs, tourists and visitors, emergency services: no one involved remains unscathed.
Wednesday 22nd March 2017 began like any other day and ended in tragedy.
Where do I go from here?
I flicked the pages of my Bible and turned up this passage which seems strangely relevant today. This is where my joy and hope lie:
When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased,
and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,
then a throne will be established in steadfast love,
and on it will sit in faithfulness… one who judges and seeks justice
and is swift to do righteousness.
