Disaster in Denver today. A gun man went into a crowded movie premiere for Batman and shot over seventy people, killing several. Every news station has been reporting it since I rose at 6 am. That’s difficult news to digest any time of day but starting my day like that did nothing for my efforts to be joyful and thankful for new mercies each morning. That event, incident, horror was on my mind and everyone’s tongues all day.
So this evening when my son talked me into going riding around the city on a Segway, I found my self thinking of the biblical reference to the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I have seen the shadows of clouds and mountains through the window of an airplane. I can only imagine how big the spectre of death must be to cast a shadow in a valley. Not only that but the valley is named after Death. Wow. I cry at the thought of my own death and the writer of that verse walked in Death’s shadow and feared no evil. How do we do that in this world? with these shadows? Kids being snatched off the street in the middle of the day? I have faith but I also have fear of something like that happening to me or my family members. So the war in my mind continues between what I see and what I believe. Tonight, I focused on my family and rode into the shadows of downtown Austin, admiring the architecture, feeling the breeze on my skin and–for a few precious moments–fearing no evil.
