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(Programming note #1: this blog entry, which will consider some of the ramifications of the shooting in Uvalde, TX, on 5/24/22, is intended as a follow up to some of my thoughts recorded and posted previously to our YouTube page.)

(Programming note #2: directly below I start below with a frivolous comparison that I hope doesn’t diminish or demean the tragedy/ies before us.)

As much as I’m a Marvel and Captain America guy, many of my favorite comic book story arcs from the past 20 years feature Batman. Specifically, one of the recent peaks for the Caped Crusader was writer Grant Morrison’s 75-issue run that began back in 2006. Morrison is known as an author who pens complex, winding storylines that delve deep into characters’ backstories and mythologies, and Batman might constitute his masterstroke.

A large part of Morrison’s stint on Batman revolves around the revival of a previously minor villain called Dr. Simon Hurt, who not only rises to prominence as a key nemesis in the present but is revealed to have been “the guy behind the guy” that orchestrated a decades-long cabal to eventually and methodically bring the Dark Knight to ruin. (Admittedly the Dr. Hurt storyline represented a massive retcon of Batman continuity, but it was executed with both great flair and also a deep respect for the source canon.)

The main gist of the Dr. Hurt conspiracy is that he finally showed himself to Batman as the hole in things. Namely, Hurt was the just-beyond-the-frame-of-vision blindspot that Batman never quite perceived but was always there to torment him. Whenever there seemed to be more to a crime than Batman could get to the bottom of, Dr. Hurt was the hole in things manipulating it all while choosing to remain in the shadows.

It’s now time for a segue! These last couple of years of ministry have surfaced for me what I’m beginning to see as “the holes in things” related to my pastoral competency and training.

One of the holes in my minister’s toolbox pertains to knowing how best to disciple brothers and sisters in the faith through hyper-polarized political waters. As a culture, our relationship to the political appeared to take a turn around 2016, and I feel like I’ve been playing catch up ever since.

Which is a discussion for another day, but not today.

The other “hole in things” that I sense lacking in my vision and strategy for Christian spiritual formation concerns best practices for shepherding souls through crisis and trauma that come over the airwaves and in news feeds. Who knows if I’m any good at it, but I do possess a measure of by-the-grace-of-God confidence in being able to navigate people through personal loss and tragedy. On the other hand, while the horrific shooting in Uvalde (and in Buffalo the week prior) aren’t for us personally-received calamities, we still feel it. A lot. It’s still grief, still fear, still confusion, still anger.

It’s my job to care for others in whatever ways they need, and I’m working on developing skills sets that will better serve others in this regard. For the moment, however, please allow me simply the space to lament that what seems to be the accelerating pace of national and international crises now necessitates that pastors (and those in similar helping professions) gain such expertise.

Disasters come at us constantly, and it’s naive to think that maybe life will level out and get better once again. Instead, to the traditional categories or loci of Christian discipleship——beliefs about God, about the church, various spiritual disciplines, how to properly handle family, sex, money, etc.——must be added how to cope with and process through the terrible and steady barrage of national/global cataclysms of various stripes and degrees. I lament that I need to learn these competencies.

That’s in itself a tragedy. Or else we become toppled by them.

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