{"id":2786,"date":"2023-07-11T08:34:14","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T12:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2786"},"modified":"2023-07-11T08:35:02","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T12:35:02","slug":"from-this-moment-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/11\/from-this-moment-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"From This Moment Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to this reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>.
 
A Scottish village of about 8,500 residents has been in the world\u2019s spotlight twice in the past 30 years. 
 
Dunblane has become famous as the hometown of Andy Murray, the first British man to win a Wimbledon singles title in 77 years \u2013 a feat he accomplished against the great Novak Djokovic in 2013.
 
Murry reached #1 in the world three years later.  Last Friday, after losing an epic five-set match to Stephanos Tsitsipas on the Wimbledon grass, he hinted that his lengthy career might finally be coming to an end.
 
Dunblane, unfortunately, also has another association.
 
In March 1996, a deranged middle-aged man named Thomas Hamilton walked into the local Primary School.  He gunned down 16 children and a teacher before turning his revolver on himself. 
 
One of the 8-year-olds in the school, hiding in terror under his desk, was Andy Murray.  The tennis player has been asked from time to time about the shootings.  He has always been reticent to share his feelings.
 
But after Murray won the Gold Medal for Men\u2019s Tennis in the 2012 London Olympics \u2013 the first time a Brit had done so in over 100 years \u2013 and followed that up a month later by winning the U.S. Open, he didn\u2019t stage a big party in London with his friends.
 
He went home to Dunblane.
 
His grandmother told a sports reporter, \u201cI think deep within him he wanted to do something, to put Dunblane on the map for the right reasons rather than the wrong reasons.\u201d  Thus the shy Scot presented himself for a day of celebration in which he was literally the one and only feature in a town parade.
 
It was a redemptive moment for a whole community.
 
What can we do in the face of overwhelming evil?  As America experiences one mass shooting after another, how can such tragedies ever be redeemed?
 
Here\u2019s what Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia, said after the Sandy Hook preschool massacre in 2012: \u201cThe only effective antidote to the wickedness around us is to live differently from this moment forward.\u201d
 
John Drane, a pastor who was ministering near Dunblane at the time of the tragedy, recounts what happened a few days later:
 
Once, on the way to the school gate, which had been turned into a place of quiet, I saw a group of youths between 17 and 20 years old. <\/em>
 
I saw them place 16 candles \u2013 one for each child who died \u2013 in a circle on the damp street and light them with a cigarette\u2026<\/em>
 
They saw me and realized that I was a pastor, and called me with the words, \u201cYou know what to say in situations like this.\u201d  As I stood there with tears streaming down my face, I had no idea what to say.  So we just stood there, holding hands. <\/em>
 
After a moment, I spoke a short prayer.  Then the teenagers also started to pray. <\/em>
 
One said, \u201cI must change!\u201d and, glancing toward a group of policemen, pulled a knife out of his pocket.  He kneeled by the candles and said, \u201cI don\u2019t think I need this anymore,\u201d then hid the knife under some flowers. Another pulled a piece of bicycle chain from his pocket and did the same. <\/em>
 
After standing together for a moment longer, we went on our way.<\/em>
 
Drane concludes: “Was God in Dunblane?  Of course.\u201d
 
Is God present at every one of the tragedies that seem to lead off our nightly news?  Of course.
 
We, too, must change.  Things must be different from this moment forward. 
 
Hope, graciousness, and ardent love must show the way.  By God\u2019s grace, may we seek to redeem our world.
 
Even in the midst of unspeakable pain.

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To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. A Scottish village of about 8,500 residents has been in the world\u2019s spotlight twice in the past 30 years.  Dunblane has become famous as the hometown of Andy Murray, the first British man to win a Wimbledon singles title in 77 years \u2013 a feat he accomplished against the great Novak Djokovic in… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,112],"class_list":["post-2786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-change","tag-suffering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2786"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2789,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions\/2789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}