Yesterday, my sister and I were headed to work jamming to Carrie Underwood. As a serious Carrie Underwood lover, I can almost recall the lyrics to each song with a certain amount of dedication and slight pride. But then, her song Change came on. For anyone who hasn’t heard of Change it starts out like,
“What you’re gonna do with the 36 cents
Sticky with coke on your floorboard
When a woman on the street is huddled in the cold
On a sidewalk bench trying to keep warm
Do you call her over, hand her the change
Ask her her story, ask her her name
Or do you tell yourself
You’re just a fool, just a fool to believe you can change the world”
It didn’t hit my heart until I listened to the lyrics and stopped singing silly to Morgan. It continues on saying,
“The world’s so big, it can break your heart
And you just want to help, not sure where to start
So you close your eyes
And send up a prayer into the dark”
Anyone who’s listened to Carrie Underwood knows how much depth and clarity she injects into her lyrics. So it’s no surprise after everything that’s happened in the last few months that this song finally found its way to me.
From the attack in Nice, France where 84 people were killed and over 202 people were wounded due to a man running over people with a 19-ton vehicle. To the Orlando, Florida shooting killing more than 50 people in the Pulse nightclub. To the gunman who shot and killed five police officers in Dallas who where protecting a rally being held at the time. To the three police officers that were killed in Baton Rouge on Sunday morning. These are just some of the most recent tragedies that we are facing in the world. This does NOT including all of the other terrorist attacks, personal attacks of people killing people, or accidental shootings that occur on a daily basis all over the world which we may never hear about.
That also doesn’t include all of the natural deaths that occur on a daily basis from heart attacks to cancer, or car accidents. Over 151,600 people die each day; 6,316 people die each hour; 105 people die each minute; nearly two people die each second. Let me just say that again, nearly two people die each second. From the time that I’ve finished this article, uploaded it, edited it, added pictures, and pressed submit nearly 6,316 people will have died. 6,000 PEOPLE. I couldn’t name nearly 6,000 people.
Now, I’m not trying to get morbid or make you cry on this beautiful Monday morning that we’ve been dearly blessed to be a part of. My goal is to bring awareness to the fact that SO MANY PEOPLE are being killed for absolutely NO REASON. As I keep gathering my thoughts the more that I get angered that I have to even write this article because it's common sense to me to not harm another person.
My parents love Jesus and raised me to be a Christian where I love Jesus and it’s my duty to love EVERYONE. It doesn’t matter if you are short or tall, skinny or not, nice or mean, dark haired or blonde, white or pink or black or albino. It doesn’t matter. I have been raised to not have hatred in my heart, to not hold a grudge, and to not get angered by people. We are all human and we all make mistakes. We are all prone to forget things, to get impatient, and to be stressed out. Yet NONE of these things give you the right to kill someone else. Nothing gives you the right to be able to take someone’s life, their dreams, their hopes, their family, and their wishes away from them.
If I could talk to each of the people who have caused such a tragedy to all of these different families and make them apologize I would. I do not understand why these things have to happen to good people. I do not understand why someone didn’t stop these people early on and give them a hug and have their loved ones surround them and help them out of a dark time in their lives. I really wish I could, but I can’t. I can’t write enough words on paper to make someone’s actions less heartbreaking and tragic. I can’t and I wish that I could.
But I can tell you that I hope these tragedies bring more people and families together. I hope that these mass murders can create awareness to all individuals that these kinds of actions are not okay. I hope that we can rally together for a greater good and that we can be more united. I hope we can stop calling each other by names that we wouldn’t want to say in front of our moms. We’ve been so blessed to be created by a God who loves us so much.
My advice to everyone is this: Philippians 4:6 states, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, send your request to God.” So pray for my friends and give love. Let’s start helping each other and being supportive. It’s a big world but it doesn’t always have to be a dog eat cat kind of world. Let's stop letting people harm our people. We are one people under God. Let’s remember that.
So back to the beginning where I’ve given you a new song you’re going to have to watch.
“The world’s so big, it can break your heart
And you just want to help, not sure where to start
So you close your eyes
And send up a prayer into the dark”
