It was a dark and scary night

 

Plans change.

I planned to review a novel today, Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal. Instead, a new tragedy pulls my attention—and the nation’s—to Aurora, Colorado, where twelve people lost their lives during Thursday’s midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises.

Movie-goers didn’t plan for a real dark knight to walk into the theater in SWAT-like protective gear, stun them all with a gas grenade, and start picking them off like characters in a video game.

Television news channels here in Colorado are still flooding the airwaves with updates of the massacre including comments from traumatized witnesses, grieving loved ones, and stunned reporters. It feels like the 1999 mass murder at Columbine High School all over again.

Plans changed for a lot of people.

Just as they did on the Titanic. Though not a premeditated massacre like today’s newsmaker, the ship’s tragic sinking took the lives of more than 1,500 people who had different plans.

How many of them had planned for eternity?

One of the most moving incidents in the Titanic novel (that I will review at a later date) is the true account of Rev. John Harper who swam through the icy waters asking struggling survivors if they were “saved.”  Giving his life preserver to a man who said no, he added, “Here, then, you need this more than I do …” Harper succumbed to the chilling waters, but the man with his life jacket lived.

Has anyone noticed that the world is not getting better, that the ship could be going down?

Has anyone noticed that God’s offer of forgiveness and rescue through Jesus still stands?

As we mourn this recent, senseless death of so many in Aurora, I encourage you to pray for the families of those who died, for the other 59 people shot, and for countless others who were traumatized.

But I also encourage you to review your plans. Make sure they will withstand the call of eternity. Make sure they reach farther into the future than midnight.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Please leave a comment on my blog at http://www.davalynnspencer.blogspot.com

Read more of John Harper here: http://www.stanford.edu/group/ncbc/forwards/titanic.htm