If only -- Maranatha!

I don't really want to hear another person say, "IF ONLY someone had been reaching out to Seung-Hui Cho this wouldn't have happened."

The fact is that there WERE people trying to reach out to him. Some Campus Crusade for Christ students had been attempting a relationship. Some other Korean students had tried. But the fact is that sometimes things aren't simple.

If you have had the experience of dealing with people in deep depression you realize that they don't always respond -- or they respond by pushing you away. Often they feel that no one cares and that no one is there for them. You could be spending 25 hours a day listening to them talk about their problems but in their minds no one cares. Sometimes they'll even try to dump a load of guilt on their best care givers because they "don't care" -- when the fact is that it is often impossible to care enough to make them happy. The nature of depression is that the care receptors get crossed up and a part of the brain isn't getting the care signal -- no matter how strong it is.

Could we have done better -- probably. We usually can. But it's not fair to those who had off and on been reaching out to Cho to suggest that nothing was being done. Even with years of professional training and experience it's still a bit of a crap shoot when dealing with deep-seated depression. And if there are other mental illnesses involved it's even more of a long shot. Cho had received psychiatric care.

We live in a fallen world which will at some point experience the wonder of full healing. But we aren't there -- quite yet. As the early Christians used to say in this kind of situation -- "Maranatha! Come Lord, Jesus." There are times when that is the only thing we can say.