Reflections on this week

You may have heard about this on the news:
http://www.chron.com/disp/video.mpl/media/19875552?autoplay
Please watch the video above before reading for this post to make sense. It is from a Houston Police Department press conference on January 6, 2010. There have been other news releases since but this is the video that most sticks to the facts.

I knew Danish since I first started working at Lee High School. He often helped with the criminal justice class I co-taught last year. He knew the law that he'd learned through his LJ classes well and was passionate about helping our freshmen classes learn how to run a mock trial. He told me several times that he aspired to be a lawyer someday. Students and teachers alike saw Danish as a trustworthy student with a friendly, though sometimes boastful, personality that was eager to help people - with work, with copies, or anything else. He was a leader in our Law & Justice learning community Student Council and a lot of students looked up to him. Teachers enjoyed his conversation in and out of class, and though sometimes he showed the signs of senioritis, he was rarely a discipline problem. I now understand at a new level that you may never know of the pain or deceit that someone is hiding. And we all hide things and are capable of hiding things.

As you can imagine, this news was shocking to our school community. Our minds have been reeling this week. It may be impossible to comprehend when the image you have of a young man does not match the actions he has been charged of committing.

I was hesitant to write about all of this really...but I have to get my thoughts out so I can leave them be. So below are a collection of thoughts that have been on the forefront of my mind this week.

1. Deep grief. For Ms. Khan's life that is lost. For the actions Danish and Nur have been charged with and the life they have thrown away because of their actions.
2.Compassion. For many people, including myself, when we hear of situations as gruesome as this, our first thoughts may turn to justice being served. We may judge the people as horrible human beings, now not worthy of life. I've felt very convicted this week that it is not my job to judge Danish, but God's. I am not in any way condemning what Danish was charged with. But I do believe I am to pray for Danish to humble himself in true repentance. God has not left him, and does not want him to be alone. And if one day, Danish would cry out to God for forgiveness, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would accept him. This has convicted me to find a way, through God's strength, to forgive Danish and pray for him. He is so lost right now...
3.Conviction. At some point in my Christian walk, it became commonplace to hear that Jesus died for my sins. I have never known someone that killed another during this lifetime. Now, knowing someone that has been charged with murder puts it in a new perspective. I have also been a killer. Not in this lifetime, but less than 200o years ago, the evil thoughts and actions in me condemned Jesus of Nazareth to death. My sin might not seem as great to you or me sometimes as murder in this life, but sin is sin and "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Also, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). Had it not been for God's great compassion on you and I, it might be me condemned to eternal death...Oh, how I praise and glorify HIS name because He has restored me to life. This shakes me to the core.
4. Desire for prayer. It is really the only way I know how to get through this situation. I'm praying for Danish to be moved by God's Holy Spirit to seek the Truth of a Savior. I'm praying sometime through his imprisonment, that God will send someone to read him the story in Luke 21:26-43. The criminal saw his punishment as due, feared God and believed, and Jesus forgave him on the cross. I'm praying for Danish to seek true repentance and leave this crumbling world of deceit. I'm praying for the other teachers and students, that somehow through all of this, our hearts will all be moved to seek God for comfort, truth and wisdom. And I'm praying that God will continue to strengthen me in my faith. Glory to Him for providing for me this week, it has not been an easy one.
The thoughts I've shared are amidst so many others of confusion and sadness. Please, if you pray, remember Danish, Lee HS's students and teachers and me as well in your prayers this week. Pray for the teachers that are desperately wondering if there's anything they could have done that would have prevented this, as it's an intense struggle for teachers that were closest to Danish right now. Pray for strength and that I will be able to put thoughts of all this aside and be diligent to my job of teaching this week, as it was very difficult to do this last week.
In greatest appreciation,
Danielle