Hopefully, building from that premise does give some consolation. However to those parents who are hurting from the agonizing, gut-wrenching throes of grief, I have learned that grief is not so much about where we are going to as much as it is the empty seats we leave behind.

The complex days and nights of mourning for loved ones who are gone leave us desperately needing to know that there is a God who has a master plan and a sovereign grace that can penetrate even the darkest days, giving ease to the angst that aches in places where only God's love can penetrate.

Jesus doesn't attempt to explain death even when Lazarus his friend died. He simply weeps with those who weep. It is not so important that we have answers as it is that we have compassion.

In the thirty years I have been ministering, I have learned that we are not able to explain tragedies. Why does one person become so enraged that they seek the demise of countless people that they do not know? It is unexplainable for a rational mind. Yet we see tragedies of this magnitude happening all over the world. If there is any morsel of wisdom we can take away from such tragedies than all is not lost. However, if we awake tomorrow to business as usual, we are destined to repeat the same mistakes without remedy.

In the deadliest shooting rampage in modern day U.S. history we are left asking what causes such tragedies to occur? I do not know but I may suggest we denounce the bickering and pettiness, loathing and hatred, that opens the way for such activities by learning how to agree and yes how to disagree and yet maintain some core values and respect for each other that insures that such vicious rudeness does not escalate to the perpetuation of this senseless destruction of life.

Many of us are suffering from little to no tolerance for people who think, believe, look, dress or act differently than ourselves. We will never agree on all issues; but we can learn to be civil and respectful. From the first family mentioned in the Bible where one brother named Cain rose up in anger to kill his own brother Abel we see a progressively corrosive society filed with senseless wars, genocide around the world and mindless mass killings. The irony is that we profess a faith for the future but where faith is needed most is in the immediacy of our day-to-day lives.

The Bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. So this is what we must hope will come out of this tragedy.

I hope we find some shred of wisdom in the remains of this. I hope that we do something to dispel this trend we see mounting all around us. I hope that this crisis teaches us to love more deeply, to extend a greater sense of respect and compassion for one another.

I understand that it is the loss of life that also teaches us the value of life. It is its brevity of moments that encourages us not to waste days with anger and unforgiveness.

May all of us who dare to have a belief system that is founded in God use that faith to find solace in God's love and presence, beauty in the gift he gives us each moment, and savoring every drop of life we have.