Dearest PCLT family and friends,

On Monday, we all woke up to the horrible news of another violent shooting. My heart breaks for everyone affected by what happened there. There is so much going on in the world right now – people recovering from hurricanes and earthquakes and fires. I haven’t slept well the last several nights. I move between a deep sadness to helplessness to fitting anger at all of this senseless death. And I worry about how we can move forward without allowing these deaths and bloodshed to be just another statistic.

This week we need words of comfort; we need words of peace; we need words of hope; we need words of love. This week let us hug the ones we love and remind them how much we love them. This week, let us be a little more gentle with one another. Because there are many, many people doing kind, good things in the world. And because Love has changed the world, Love does change the world, Love will change the world. Love wins my friends. May it be so.

With you in love and prayer,
Pastor Laura

A Prayer for Las Vegas

God, in our shock and confusion, we come before you.
In our grief and despair in the midst of hate,
in our sense of helplessness in the face of violence,
we lean on you.

For the families of those who have been killed we pray.
For the shooter – help us to pray, Lord.
For the communities that have lost members – their anger, grief, fear – we pray.
For the faith communities striving to be your light in
the darkness beyond our comprehension, we pray.

In the face of hatred, may we claim love.
May we love those far off and those near.
May we love those who are strangers and those who are friends.
May we love those who we agree with and understand,
and even more so, God, those who we consider to be our enemies.
Amen.