Every one of us knows what it’s like to be afraid. But for Susie Davis, it was a moment of unimaginable tragedy that led to a season of anxiety and worry.
As only a teenager, on what seemed a completely normal day, she witnessed a shooting in her classroom that claimed her teacher’s life. She explains what it was like to grapple with that in the months and years that followed.
“I was just waiting for the next thing. I felt hyper-alert. On the outside, I was smiling and working hard at school and doing all these things. But on the inside there was this newsreel playing in my head. Because guess what? That wasn’t made up. That was reality for me. It really did happen.”
The path to finding freedom for Susie lay not in diminishing the pain or the questions, but in facing the source of her heartbreak. For her, that meant confronting the idea that God really couldn’t have been as trustworthy as she’d always thought He was.
“God – ever the faithful Healer and ever the good Father – brought me through the healing process. He allowed me to get to the end of myself. We’re not meant to manage that. We’re not meant to carry that on our shoulders. So God took me through a healing process that was really beautiful and very personal and creative.”
“He brought me through it, and I can tell you that I’m free! Do I get upset, and does it touch a deep part of me when I hear about school shootings or things like that? Or just horrible, hard things that happen to people? Yeah. I will always walk with that limp. But I can tell you – and my family can attest to this – I am free. I’m joyful. I am just obsessed with the love notes God leaves in my life and the beauty He has created in this world. He rescued me. He healed me, and it’s a miracle!”
Susie Davis is the author & speaker behind the powerful book Dear Daughters: Love Letters to the Next Generation.
On the Road with Susie Davis
