On the night of October first, the annual Harvest Music Festival was drawing to a close. Thousands of spectators from across America were present to witness country music. At around ten o’clock P.M., however, something went wrong. As Jason Aldean sang, a sound that seemed to many like fireworks went off. When the loud successions of banging noises did not stop, terror slipped into the minds of the audience. These were no fireworks. These people were being attacked, shot at from above.

59 people died that night, and over 500 were injured.

The largest mass shooting in American history occurred on that night, but if we’re being honest, isn’t it somewhat unsurprising? We live in a world where news stations are always reporting a stabbing, a bombing, a robbery, a murder. Seeing these events take place in our world have become a common thing. When we hear about recent terrorist attacks, there’s no shock. We feel almost nothing. This is the problem.

When someone simply hears the hard facts about the Las Vegas shooting, they hear numbers and logistics. As compassionate humans, we should think of those numbers not as figures on a page, but as individual lives. People have died, and people are dying. Families and friends are connected to each of those numbers.

This is not an article to make the reader feel bad. It’s a call to compassion. We need to think about these deaths in a Christian perspective: people are dying, and people need the Gospel. It is our duty as Christian men and women to minister to the world, to scatter seeds, to love. It should not pass over calloused ears when we hear of tragedies. It is heartbreaking that some of those men and women who died did not end up in heaven. It is our responsibility. We must care for people’s eternal position, because our responsibility is to share the Good News.

In a time such as this in the world we live in, people do not need money, comfort, or friendships- they need Jesus.