Last Thursday, a gunman opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. At least 10 people were killed and several others were wounded. One survivor, Anastasia Boylan, told her father and brother that the gunman entered her classroom firing, shooting the professor point blank. As the gunman was reloading his gun, Boylan said the gunman told any student to stand up if they were a Christian. When they stood up, the gunman said, "Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second."

Chills. No words. My body goes numb every time I re-read this statement. My only question: "What person, claiming to be a Christian, could have enraged this gunman enough to take multiple human lives?"

There is no need to give the gunman a name because he does not need to be glorified. But there is always a reason to grieve when a human life is taken, no matter the level of horrific. There is something that we as believers need to realize from the gunman's words, and that is our mission as Christians.

The Christian life isn't an easy life. No one, not even Jesus Himself, said it would be easy. As a believer you are commanded to lay down your life, pick up your cross and follow Jesus. Tthat is exactly what the victims of the Oregon shooting did.

There is no definite answer to whether or not I would have done the same thing if I was in their position, unless I was in their position. The shooter targeted Christians, and we can only wonder why. We will never be able to ask him what was done that made him feel like Christians did not deserve their lives anymore.

If you are going to take anything from this shooting, take away the realization that as Christians, we should be spreading love. We should be spreading truth. We should be living by the Gospel and reflecting on it as much as we possibly can. We have no idea what a person has gone through, is going through or will be going through.

There is sin in our world. There is crime in our world. And there are non-believers in our world. And because of these non-believers, a community needs to heal. But a community can also grow in their faith. A community is able to take a tragedy and turn it into a miracle. There is so much hurt and pain in the world nowadays, it is time that we pick up our crosses and use the truth to fight back. It is time that we realize we have the God of Angel Armies by our side.

One of my good friends, Taylor Armstrong, had this to say about the students who lost their lives at Umpqua :

I'm sad. Devastated. But I'm proud of those who stood for Christ today. Who took a bullet in the name of Jesus today. What would I do if I was in their shoes, I truly do not know. As I lay in my bed tonight, safe really safe, I am in tears because college students just like me died today for saying they were Christians. This world was not their home, and they knew it. But to go this way, I cannot fathom.

People. Kill. People. and today a man killed people, and his choice was to use a gun. I'm sick to my stomach and sad. Praying for the families, the town and the college and the world tonight. Because only God can fix this issue.