Two people, two paths
Eric Harris (One of the Columbine killers) and Rachel Joy Scott were born just days apart. They lived just a few miles away from each other. But in many ways, they couldn’t have been more different.
Eric was a bitter, angry person who went out of his way to give voice to his inward bitterness. Much of the time, he seemed to hate the nearly everything he saw in this world, including himself.
Rachel chose love, compassion, chose to serve God with a passion.
We can’t describe inner motivations and outward behaviours of these 2 young people.
Both talked about starting a “chain reaction” Rachel wrote a paper entitled “My ethics. My codes of Life.” Her core values: trust, honesty, compassion, love, and the desire to believe the best about people. She said, “ my codes may seem like a fantasy that can never be reached, but test them for yourself, and see the kind of effect that have in the lives of people around you. You just may start a chain reaction.”
Eric spoke of a quite different type of chain reaction. He hoped to kill hundreds of innocent students and thereby unleash a period of chaos and terror.
Eric didn’t start out life deciding he wanted to be a mass murderer. Rather, his life took shape step-by-step as he made decisions all along the way,
Neither did Rachel announce on her birthday that she wanted to be a devoted disciple of Jesus. Instead it was thru a series of fits and starts that she decided, over a period of years, to gradually give more and more of herself to God
Today, both Rachel’s words and the example of her life challenge us to choose the good path and to tell others about it whenever we can.

Rachel carried a torch, the torch of truth, the torch of compassion, the torch of love, the torch of good news of Jesus Christ, her Saviour and Lord, who was not ashamed of even in her hour of death. The torch has fallen from Rachel’s hands. Who will pick the torch up again?