Village Life Has Ceased: Virginia Tech Tragedy

Posted April 20, 2007

A commentary by Amanda Stiver

Tragedy struck at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Monday, April 16, when 32 students and faculty members were brutally massacred—a sobering reminder of our violent age. In the past few years, since the late 1990s, school shootings have become a depressingly repetitive occurrence in the United States.

A few years ago I experienced firsthand the fear of such violence at my high school during a lockdown due to a threat of serious danger. The feeling of fear came back only months later with the terrible shooting at nearby Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon. A murderous student shot 26, but killed only four thanks to heroic responses by students and emergency crews. It shook the entire community.

Beyond the obvious loss of life, the second most tragic result of these despicable acts is the loss of innocence to the young people who suffer through these attacks. Be sure to request or download the free booklet Why Does God Allow Suffering?.

When you spend time fearing for your life and the lives of those around you, you become suspicious of everyone and everything. It takes a lot of work to see the world as a place with hope and happiness again. That this happens in schools—institutions that should represent safety and assurance of good things to come—is emotionally and spiritually damaging and such a sad waste of youthful potential.

Several television commentators introduced the Virginia Tech situation with, "People are just trying to make sense of these events." The problem with that statement is that you can't make sense of such horrible acts. It's insanity in the same way that war is insanity and tragic no matter how you try to explain it. We can't live completely happy, fulfilled lives in a world full of violence on an individual or international scale. God has other, better plans for man, but mankind and the devil have managed to thwart those plans throughout history—for a little while at least.

The violence at Virginia Tech, or anywhere in the world, reminds me of how Deborah in the biblical book of Judges described her battle against the violent, terrorizing forces of King Jabin and General Sisera. "The highways were deserted, and… village life ceased, it ceased in Israel" until her leadership helped to bring justice (Judges 5:6-7). Village life, campus life and family life are interrupted and injured during tragedies like these, and people mistrust and grow fearful, even of God.

America, like all the nations of the world, diverges from the direction God planned for peoples to go. Some try to blame the weapons in these tragedies—as if a piece of metal and gunpowder caused mayhem and death of its own volition. But the real crisis is in the hearts of those who wield such weapons to do violence. The influence of a society that is entertained by sin and violence produces the setting in which a warped mind is developed, yet the sins of the individual are his or hers alone.

Facing tragedy can mire us in the sadness of wasted life. But this is the time to grow strong with faith, hope and courage. The future is not lost, and God provides endless hope within His plan for all those killed or wounded throughout history. Hardships strengthen us, testing our resolve and fortitude to do what is right—no matter the cost. When we appeal to God with repentance for help and guidance, the words of Isaiah carry considerable weight:

"Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you: The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I am'" (Isaiah 58:8-9). VT