These were words written by the shooter in the recent massacre at Virginia Tech. Apparently, they were written about his stepfather.
Sigh...poor kid.
My first reaction is to scream, "What's WRONG with you? Why would you do something like this?"
My next reaction is to calm down and say, "No, seriously. Why WOULD he have done something like this?"
Apparently an extremely shy kid...Cho never spoke to anyone. He had moved from South Korea when he was eight years old.
Starved for attention, he would "sign in" at college classes with question marks instead of his name. It seems like he was subtly asking the professor, "Do YOU know my name? Do you know who I am? Do you care?"
So we have a kid transplanted kid from another country, leaving everything he knows to come to a new and strange place. His relationship with his stepfather is already not a good one. He arrives and perhaps some people tried to reach out to him, but he is painfully shy. He gets made fun of by rich kids and develops a deep anger towards them which is never released or resolved.
Could the love of Christ have reached Cho? God loved Cho with a relentless love. He was always there, offering his love and hoping.
This incident just reminds me how important youth ministry could be. Reaching out to "the new kid" is one of the best ministries you will ever do. Breaking through the "shy" kid's wall is extremely rewarding. Coaching a teenager along spiritually, emotionally and socially is SO important!! Teaching how to properly release your anger is a must for us all.
Victims, survivors and families...my prayers are with you.
2 comments:
I am on a different side of this emotionally right now, but totally agree and support what you've written. I know it's the attitude Jesus would have, but it's not mine right now.
I ABHOR the attention people who commit such horrors get. The media is all over them. True, he's dead, so what does he know, but I wonder how many other attention-starved social outcasts are thinking about how glorious it would be to get such attention.
My insides are screaming he should be forgotten as quickly as possible, blotted out. I hate the idea of thinking about what motivated him - I don't care! It doesn't justify what he did or restore the lives he destroyed.
Fortunately for all of us, though, God doesn't throw us away so easily. Our sin pains Him more than it even does us, and I know that we are forgiven to the measure we forgive others. I'm definitely a work in progress!
Youth ministry can be an important way to reach out to kids that are hurting. I remember as a kid the last people I wanted to talk with were my parents.
This whole VT situation reminds me that there is so much more we can do to reach out to people. I'm not sure Cho could've been stopped. Part of me wonders if it happened for a reason. To be honest there isn't much wondering about it. I believe this happened for a reason and it would be wise of us to think about it and reflect on it.
Theresa - I agree that the media is messed up. They work hard to create news rather than report it so they can make a ton of money from their advertisers. The media is a huge problem. And I understand your point about this kid being an example for other messed up kids. But I still believe that if we "blot" this situation out then we might miss some important lesson.
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