I was going to make a post about this the day after this event happened but I decided to hold off and reflect about it a little more.

As this is certainly a tragedy of immense proportions, what can we take away from this?

There constantly seems to be senseless killing going on all over the world with suicide bombers wrecking havoc over seas and then we have this happen right in our own back yards.

I think we would like to think that we could control these types of situations but I think we are only fooling ourselves if we think this.

It’s easy to sit back and look at it afterwards and say:

1. With this boys history of stocking and disturbing written papers, why wasn’t he locked up already?

2. Where were the police and security between the first shooting and the two hours between the second shooting?

As these all may be good questions, they do not take away from the fact that it happenend. Stuff does happen.

Cho Seung-Hui is dead along with the 33 others he took with him and all we have is a manifesto and some videos with gibberish on them.

Then I started to think, what could I personally take away from this?

What would I like to have firmed up, if some nut came into a place where I was and decided to take a few out along with himself?

1. I would want to have no grudges with anyone at that time. I would want a clean slate with anyone I came in contact with, if I offended them.

2. I would want to be at peace with God and his son Jesus. Could you imagine if one of the people who were killed in this tragedy was one minute away from accepting Jesus but never did? This is a scary thought. (This just comes from my religious views but it could be the same with any faith.)

3. What if I was the offender of one of the ones who got killed but I didn’t get the chance to say I was sorry. I would certainly find that hard to live with.

4. What if Cho Seung-Hui was shunned by others, but one smile or a kind hello could have prevented this from happening.

It’s my belief, that we are put on this earth to use our unique strengths and abilities to help others on this earth. And when you see something like this happen, it makes me take stock in that and look for ways I can be more productive and for ways that I can positively help others.

My prayers are with the families of the people taken in this unfortunate event.

John Clark

P.S. Who can you make peace with today? Whose life could change on a dime today with your kind smile and hello today? Is today the day you make peace with your maker? Tomorrow could be to late.

John, Your on the mark, man. Here's a Coffee to keep you posting!