In our study to care with actions that make a difference we begin with our nature. This is our source and capacity to care. If we have a nature that has not been changed by God, all kinds of disfunction pour out of us. I make this point with the metaphor of your life being a bucket. Whatever your bucket is full of will affect how you approach every situation in life and how well you care or even if you care. There is great news! God offers to fill our buckets with a new nature powered by His Spirit that helps us care effectively.

When we boil it all down, most of us want to know our life has made a difference in someone else’s life. That’s worth thinking about and considering how that desire fits into God’s plan and design for our lives. Then we are set on a course for our best life.

Our world changed on April 20, 1999. I remember where I was standing when I first heard there was an active shooter in a High School in Littleton, Colorado. In this episode I talk to Lauren who was a student at Columbine that day. Just before the shooting began, she was on the payphone trying to get her mother’s permission to skip a class so she could go the library to work on a project. Her mother did not give her permission, so Lauren did not go to the room that became a war zone. She was one of the students who safely fled the school. Her memories involve surprise, shock and sadness. Her story teaches us how to support people with trauma and how we can be caring people when we cannot see the trauma a person has experienced.