This is the answer I sent to my nephew and his wife who expressed some beautiful words of comfort and encouragement including feeling sorry for the man who shot Richard...thought I'd share it.
"It's interesting that you expressed feeling sorry for the person who did this. I do too. Although if it were me being shot, I KNOW I would feel quite angry at him or her at that moment. ("Who are you to wreck my life by just pulling that trigger? What did I ever do to you?") But I also know that there's a lot of frustration, anger and sadness behind that act. And I know that all of us need Jesus for the sins we commit--we're not perfect like Jesus is. Anyway we do pray for him. He's probably extremely poor and without hope. Some people whose lives were already pretty hopeless before the earthquake have become unbearable. Even though we don't see ourselves as rich, we don't have to watch our kids cry for not having food. It's possible that the man who pulled the trigger has witnessed that kind of thing. Or has just watched someone die for lack of a few dollars worth of medicine. Of course that doesn't excuse this person--doesn't mean he can just go around shooting random foreigners. But we can be humble knowing the truth that our not-so-heinous sins are evil in comparison with God's goodness. And God spared Richard's life. And Richard may even play soccer again!"
Thank you for sharing that, I too was thinking similar.
ReplyDeletewe are praying that God heals Rich's leg quickly and completely and that he uses this incident to further his work in Haiti. God Bless Gary
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful... thanks for sharing Carol. I just saw Rich at Epi 'dor the other day and recently at Eagle and other places... I've seemed to run into him a lot lately and he always has a warm smile to share with me. We are thankful you will be together tonight! You all are in our hearts and prayers. We love you guys, Denise B & family
ReplyDelete@Denise - Thanks. It's great to hear from you.
ReplyDelete@Gary - Thanks for the prayers.