I am struggling for words…

So this bomb goes off in London, and I don’t know how to feel. I have no “ties” with England at all save some family coffee mug that my cousin “the actress” brought back from London when I was 7ish. I hear that it was al-Qaida related, and instantly images of two smoking towers filled with dead engulf my mind… with a “weapons of mass destruction” chaser…

I am just at a loss of how to deal with all this stuff, because to be quite honest, I don’t know how any of this effects me. I’m not very patriotic (I like America and all, very thankful for the freedom and for the people who fought for the freedom, but I don’t know if America and the democratic way is something I could die for), I feel wired when Christians get all misty eyed at a rousing chorus of “God bless America”, I hate seeing things like this (way to go RLP!), and over all the rest I don’t know how to respond with the love of God to this world when crisis hits. Sure, I can give money to just causes, but it seems so far removed and such an action to ease the civic conscious. How do I respond to people hurting, dyeing, who are hopeless and bloodied. Most of the time we don’t notice the hurts around us, until some global crises alerts us to the presence of sin and its wages.
The question that haunts me ever since September 11 is this: How do we remain salt and light to people who want to see us dead? Or are we simply to draw the line in the sand with the battle cry, “Don’t tread on us!”? I understand what berttd is feeling… I relay do because my first reaction is “find the sonofabitch who dares devalue life in this manner, and after our come to Jesus, they can face the God they tired to play.” But this overwhelming feeling of helplessness and compassion that means nothing brings a quick reality check to my “kill the ****ers” spirit. Again, it goes into the truth that I want something to fight for… I just want it to be a war of love, for lack of better terms. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Sorry, I got nothing.