Madness

In wake of the tragic events that have transpired at Virginia Tech, I have been able to examine myself. If something like that were to happen to me, how would I react?

I don't know much about the killer or the videos/letter that he mailed, but apparently the guy was quite bitter with the way he was treated. This leads me simply to survey why people act the way that they do. This guy was obviously an extreme in that he ended up slaughtering the lives of 33 innocent people. However, what he went through in the events leading up to tragic monday are surely no different from what many of us have experienced in our own lives.

After all, who on earth finds it easy to be rejected? I lived in recently...as in 1.5 months ago. Thinking about a very special person as one of the most significant things going in your life...only to have them hand it down to you gently that you are but a mere wrinkle in their blanket of life.

It's tough.

To this day I still relive that night over and over again. Just feeling my heart drop 2 inches as soon as I realized that everything I had envisioned for a close-knit friendship had been absolutely crushed due to mere words. I can't even begin to enumerate the times that I have been rejected growing up in life by the people who were supposed to be quite dear to me.

Again, I say, it's tough.

The dilemma then becomes not the experience in itself, but rather the reaction. Good things are going to happen to us and bad things are going to happen to us--this is certain. However, what shall be your response when these life ridges stare you in the face? The VT killer chose to expel his pent up emotion by robbing others of what the very life he felt was robbed of him.

Me? I try my hardest to voluntarily choose to serve those that reject me. Humility, dear friend, is the virtue that is hardest to find in others. Anyone can be nice to another person so long as they're pampered with blessings. It truly takes a unique person to hug the person who has just punched you in the stomach.

Obviously learning this humility does not occur overnight...but I believe that the process is gratifying in and of itself. From the tiny morsel that I've tasted of this life so far, one absolutely awesome thing I've found is that there's something truly fulfilling in finding joy. When you find joy experiencing the bliss of life, it's delightful. When you find joy experiencing the nightmares of life, it's even better. However, when you find joy in realizing that you can stare at the person so maliciously pointing their finger down at you, and still smile because you love them past their harsh judgment, well...that joy is euphoric.