Protect them...

So as many of you this week, I sent my kids back to school.  School, a place where when I was a kid it seemed, well, safe.  In light of the event at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the recent one at the Elementary school in Georgia, I find myself wondering are they really?

At the same time, I refuse to live in fear.  If I live in fear, then these "unstable" people win.  I recently caught wind that our local sheriff is wanting an SRO (Student Resource Officer) at every school. 

Though that makes me feel better, it's not the answer.

As a father and as a minister of students I find myself praying often for my children and my students that God would protect them.

"I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name - the name you gave me - so that they may be one as we are one."  John 17:10, NIV

Jesus was about to leave the disciples (his students) and go back to heaven.  He was sending his students into the world to make a difference.  At the same time their world was, well, angry at them for being followers of Jesus.  His students had done nothing wrong, and yet their lives where in danger.

Just as Jesus sent his students out, so are we.  In a world that doesn't like them for the fact that they are followers of Jesus.  Jesus prayed, "Protect them".

As I sit in the mornings waiting on the school bus, I often think that everyone of the parents of either the Sandy Hook school or those in Georgia.  How they put their kids on the bus or dropped them off at school thinking they are safe and that its just another ordinary day in suburbia.  Then in an instant everything changed. 

Then I wonder, "Did my parents have these same fears when I was in school?" 

It's heart wrenching as a parent and a student minister to think of what these parents felt and are still feeling.  Elementary school students who have really done nothing more wrong than pull a piggy tail, talk when they weren't supposed to, or ran in the hallway.  Students who have become victims.  Families lives that have been tragically changed forever.

"Father, protect them, in their world.....the world of schools"

The world of public schools has changed so much since I was there (or you).  Elementary school students dealing with what I did in middle school, those in middle school dealing with stuff I did in high school, and those in high school dealing with stuff I did in college.  Drugs, alcohol, self-mutilation, bullying, sex, and the list could go on and on....

"Father, protect them, in their world.....the world of schools"

I also have friends that are teachers, administration, and staff in the public education system,  I wonder how they would feel if something happened in their school, or their classroom...

"Father, protect them, in their world.....the world of schools"

I still believe in the public education system, I am a result of the public education system, and I will send my children through the public education system.  I will not live in fear, so therefore I pray:

"Father, protect them....."

Will you join me in praying this?  Chris