My heart has been heavy lately.
Living in the DMV area, the news about Dr. Cerina Fairfax really hit home for me. Having lived in Fairfax County when I first moved to the DMV in 2014, it felt personal. To hear that she was killed by her husband while their children were in the house . . . it’s the kind of tragedy that leaves you speechless.
But then the headlines keep coming. A father in Shreveport taking the lives of eight children, seven who were his own. Can you imagine? And the heartbreaking reality that at least 12 Black women have been murdered in just the first four months of this year.
Sometimes, scrolling through social media feels like walking through a minefield of grief. If you’ve felt overwhelmed, exhausted, or just plain sad by all of the black femicide and violence lately, I want you to know you aren’t alone. My heart and prayers go out to every family shattered by these events.
It’s moments like these that force us to look past the surface and see things on a spiritual level. They are a sobering reminder of the “depravity of man.” It’s hard to grasp how far we’ve fallen until we see the consequences of a world fractured by sin. We see it in the lack of emotional regulation, the mental struggles, and the way people lose control of themselves.
My dad has a quote that becomes more real to me every day:
“Sin has to get so bad that we never want it again.”
It sounds harsh, but look around. It is bad. It’s so bad that it leads to unthinkable acts. It’s so bad that it breaks the very foundations of family and safety.
This is exactly why we cannot talk about tragedy without talking about Jesus.
Sin has corrupted the human heart so deeply that we are incapable of fixing ourselves. We can’t “self-care” our way out of the depravity of the world. We need a Savior.
Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross wasn’t some event we read in scripture; it was the final solution for sin. He died because He saw the headlines we’re reading today. He saw the pain, the violence, and the brokenness, and He took the weight of it all so that one day, sin will be no more.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the darkness, I want to encourage you: Keep your hope in Jesus. He died so that one day, we won’t have to wake up to news of heinous crimes. He died to usher in a kingdom where every tear is wiped away and death is defeated forever. Until then, we recognize that these tragedies are the “why” behind the Gospel. They remind us that the lowest of human behavior proves why we desperately need Him.
