So let it rain...

A year ago this week, my hometown experienced great tragedy. We lost two of our high school students to suicide in one weekend. For weeks now I'm been thinking about what to say when this week finally came. Honestly though, there are no words, and I'm doing the best that I can to find something to say. One thing that I have always been able to really connect with is music, and that's one thing that helped a lot of us express our feelings during this time last year when we were all at a loss for words. In choir, we sang a song by U2 called MLK, which brought a lot of tears for months. Everywhere we sang this song we made audiences cry, even causing the judges at State Contest to cry during our performance.

"Sleep tonight
And may your dreams
Be realized
If the thundercloud
Passes rain
So let it rain
Rain down on him"

As we performed this song, we all held hands and felt connected to one another like we never had before. Suddenly, we realized how much we all meant to each other, and how much we needed each other for support. We couldn't do it alone, and it was okay to feel weak and vulnerable sometimes. During the weeks following the deaths of our classmates, our school came together like it never had before, and likely never will again. I have never felt so close to the 450+ students in my grade, and the 2,000 students in my grade, most of whom I have never even met. We cried with strangers, we prayed with strangers, we openly prayed in a public school, and we leaned on each other for hope and support.

Today, my home church sang a song that was the favorite worship song of one of the young men that we lost, "Overcome" by Jeremy Camp. Since I couldn't be there, my mom texted me to tell me, and I listened to the song here at school.

"Power in hand speaking the Father's plan 

You're sending us out, light in this broken land
We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb 

and the word of our testimony, everyone overcome"

 

By the end of the song, I had tears streaming down my face. These last last few words really hit home for me. This world is so broken, and there is a lot of hurt, but we can overcome. With Jesus and our faith in him, we can overcome anything that comes our way. I've learned that from terrible things comes amazing grace, love and learning. We have all learned something from this tragedy. We have learned to come together as a community. We have learned how to communicate with one another even when words fail us. We have learned that we cannot do anything without faith or without others to help us through. Johnston, I am here for you, this week and always. You have taught me amazing things about love, community, and struggle. I am all the better for that. So be strong, Johnston. Together, we can overcome.

"What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise."

-Oscar Wilde