Suffering all around us

At least 147 people, mostly students, have been killed in an assault by al-Shabab militants on a university in north-eastern Kenya.  Heavily armed attackers stormed Garissa University early on Thursday, killing two security guards then firing indiscriminately on students. It is the deadliest attack yet by al-Shabab. The militants singled out Christians and shot them, witnesses said.

I really struggle to know what to do with the pain and helplessness I feel around the current tragedies that swirl all around us.  I also struggle with frustration and borderline shame around my own emotional detachment.  

I read about one student, Hellen Titus, who told the Kenyan media how she was able to escape from the tragedy as the shooters hovered over her and her fellow students. She covered herself with someone else’s blood and was thereby mistaken for dead.  Hellen's story reminds us that it is the precious blood of Jesus that gives us life.
        We do well to remember that the story of any one of us is in some measure the story of us all and that the Author of this story has promised that we can overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony...and in the meantime we must remember that we cannot fix it all, but we can reach out in simple acts of love and healing to the person in  need that is right in front of us.