From the Pastor’s Desk,

Over the last weekend in Omaha four more

young people have lost their lives in senseless

shootings. One or more of them may be gang related,

or they may not, we don’t really know. What

we do know is that gang activity among youngsters

continues to rise and it takes its toll on all of us; it

influences all of us; and we are left with questions

that don’t seem to have any answers.

And now that these young people’s lives have

ended, almost before they began, what has changed.

Is some gang content that the incursion on their

“turf” has been thwarted. Has appropriate vengeance

for an obscure geographic invasion been enacted

such that relief has come to the injured parties?

Are the scales of human justice now, finally,

once and for all been balanced, so that both sides

can go back to their domains, confident in the assurance

that they will now be able to live the rest of

their lives in peace and comfort?

Is a life so expendable that it can serve as the

payment for a debt so small as encroachment into a

foreign territory, or some insulting scribbling on a

wall decrying your fellow man’s relative position to

you?

And who determined these weights and balances?

Who sets the redemptive fee for wearing the

wrong color bandana at one living, breathing, human

being?

When these young people left this world, did

they carry with them that “turf” they so longed to

defend? When these children entered into the presence

of our almighty God, did they go with their

heads held high displaying their dignity and honor

for which they had so unselfishly sacrificed their

lives.

Most of all, I wonder what response they received

from the only One who really owns that

“turf” for which they died; the only One who deserves

not to be “Diss’ed,” but to be respected and

honored - the Lord God who made all things.

My Lord, I pray your children would know and

love you with all their heart, and all their soul, and

all their mind, and all their strength; and their

neighbor as themselves.