Northern Illinois University: One Week....

It's been one week since the brutal shooting at Northern Illinois University.

As always, it seems like so long ago. But it's only been a week. This post was made at 3:06 pm (the time of the shooting) in honor of the University, it's students and the victims.

Jim

NIU...

I saw this picture this morning on the Kane County Chronicle's website.

And it just made me think... In the midst of all that is going on out there in terms of the investigation, the interviews, the stories, the pictures and everything that has the media in such a frenzy, are any of those answers going to really bring any healing to the campus of NIU?

My sense is not.

What will really bring the kind of healing that they need is prayer, thoughtfulness and time. I was watching some of the news coverage last night and the now that young man has been identified, the media has surrounded his father's home in Florida. And I thought to myself, why? Why in the midst of this man's grief are you trying to ask him questions? How silly and thoughtless.

Let's pray for the NIU community. Let's be there for them in the midst of this. Let's help them heal at the pace that seems appropriate to them. Let's give them the time and the space that they need.

Jim

Northern Illinois University prayers...

This morning my thoughts and prayers went out to the community at Northern Illinois University. I watched all of the press conference this morning talking about new information and answering questions.

As I watched the conference, I was impressed by degree of professionalism by those who were on stage answering questions, while I struggled with the degree of blame that the reporters were trying to place on "someone."

This is a tragedy. No doubt about it.

But these reporters were looking for someone... other than the gunman... to blame for this... the gunseller... the door on Cole Hall... someone who saw the gunman but didn't see the guns and who should have stopped him... the federal law that should have prevented this guy who legally bought the guns from buying the guns in accordance with the gun purchasing time-line... the school for not taking "appropriate-enough actions" with a couple of other seemingly unrelated threats that they had previously received... the medicine that the gunman was on but had stopped taking... etc, etc, etc... They seemed to be looking for someone to place the blame... someone other than the person responsible.

It's a tragedy.
No one could have predicted what this guy was going to do before he did it. Other than him. It stinks. It's hard. That's what tragedies are.

My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the NIU campus, Brian and Russ at the Christian Campus House at NIU and others who are involved.

Jim

NIU Shooting this afternoon

Most people, at least in this area, have heard about the shooting at Northern Illinois University today. Scary, scary stuff. Chris Genders, a former paster at FVCC, was close to campus. He went over to make sure that all the students were safe. For a short time, we (Chris and I... cell phones were down in the area and so he asked if I could try to call him) were trying to get ahold of one of the campus pastors. But shortly thereafter, all in the Christian Campus House, which FVCC supports as a local mission were reported as safe.

Still... scary scary stuff... especially so close to home. NIU is about a 30 minute drive from my house and I have been in Cole Hall where the shooting took place today.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the students and faculty of NIU.

Jim