I went to sleep last night after listening to a conference call covering details for our upcoming convention. I made a checklist of things that I needed to pack, looked at the weather in Vegas, and chatted with my business partners about scheduling happy hour meet ups, team dinners, what we were wearing for the gala, etc….

What I didn’t account for was waking up to see the news of the deadliest mass shooting in US history. I should be packing. But, instead, I’m glued to the television and social media with tears streaming down my face. I can’t imagine the emotional and psychological trauma the survivors have endured. I can’t imagine the grief and pain that the families of the victims have experienced. I can’t imagine the sheer terror that everyone there had to feel.

I don’t understand what could ever convince someone to do something so horrendously atrocious! But, I’m reminded of the message yesterday, Wasteland: Lessons from the book of Job. After losing everything and all of his children dying, Job still praised the Lord. Job 1:20-22. God is still good and God is still Love in a world filled with evil. Without the presence of evil you wouldn’t recognize Love. You can have no light without there being dark, no hot without cold.

And so, today, as I go about my day, I will praise God because he is good. I will pray for those victims of evil. I will hug my loved ones a little tighter and try not to take one single second with them for granted. I will also pray that God uses me to touch someone that may be struggling. I pray that his love shines through me to someone that needs to see it. I pray that any individual tormented inside of their own mind to the point where they feel it necessary to pour out pure evil on others may see the light and the love of God through someone willing to reach out and share it with them. We can walk around questioning and asking why and blaming, or we can look to him, Creator of All Things & pray that he use us to share his love with others so that we may live to see more Love in the world than Evil.