I actually took a whole day off of the computer and the Internet yesterday, huzzah! Except for using it to listen to the Niners/Vikings game. Sigh. For a minute there, when third-string quarterback Shaun Hill—who had never played in a regular season game in his six years in the NFL—had to step in near the end, and then proceeded to get four first downs and a touchdown in a total Friday Night Lights moment, I thought maybe we’d get a miracle win. It was not to be. But at least Hill’s performance was a tiny glimmer of hope. Maybe.

So…the church shootings in Colorado. Frankly, I am surprised this has not happened sooner. I worked in a big, downtown church for three years and there were a lot of angry, hurting, and mentally ill people coming and going. Whenever there was a school or workplace shooting I’d think, “It could happen here, easily.” A lot of people are angry at churches, church people, or God…some of them with good reason. And we sit there in open buildings every week with our backs to the door, and the majority of normal (non-mega) churches don’t have security guards like the one in CO did. So, I don’t know, it doesn’t surprise me at all. It will be interesting to see if/how churches across the country react or change policies and habits due to this incident. I hope they don’t. I wouldn’t want what’s happened to the country at large (old ladies at airports having to take their shoes and belts off, “if you see something, say something,” paranoia about liquids and gels, etc.) to happen to places of worship. Not because of the inconvenience of that or the sadness of it, but because that stuff is all about fear, and if there’s one thing Christians are told over and over again in the New Testament we’re supposed to be free of, it’s fear. Not because the world is safe—Christians, contrary to what you might sometimes hear from some pulpits—don’t get some special blessing of safety and freedom from harm. But our faith is supposed to be in stuff not of this world, and physical and material safety is of this world. I’m not saying I’m not afraid, or don’t want to be safe. I am a normal, frightened human, after all, but the idea is try to not let that fear rule you.

On that cheery note, time to get to work!