There are no words we can offer that can match the sorrow that we all feel today.

No words can express the nightmare a parent faces in having to bury a child.

No words can describe the evil that possesses someone who takes the lives of the innocent.

All we can do is mourn and offer up our prayers.

The tragedy that unfolded this week at an elementary school in Ulvalde, Texas has left stunned and silent in grief. An 18-year-old man made threats on social media, then went to a local school and opened fire, killing 19 children and two teachers before being killed by law enforcement.

Texas Governor Abbot noted that the shooting highlighted the problem of mental health, though he acknowledged that there was no real forewarning of the attack.

This is not the time to engage in tasteless political rhetoric and opportunism. (Though that has not stopped some people from trying to politicize the tragedy.)

All we can do is offer our prayers and mourn the victims whose lives ended in such a tragic and violent way. We pray for grace, healing, and comfort for the families affected.

What’s more, we pray for our country. We have taken God out of our classroom and our culture, and this is the result – a society that does not value life more than fame, one that has lost its sense of right and wrong. We need to put righteousness back in our culture.

As it says in Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; But sin is a reproach to any people.”

Please join me in praying for the children and teachers who were killed, for their families, for their community, for Texas, and for our nation.