A Sea Of Red

This morning I was reading the news and saw that a young man died after being hit by a train on the trestle that travels over the James. Another was sent to the hospital.

http://www.wset.com/story/27334211/poli ... rside-park

When I read that the kids involved were college aged I looked to see if they were LU students and it looks like they were.

Prayers for all involved. Sad accident.

When will the kids ever learn? It has been only a couple of years since this last LU students died on that trestle.

Prayers go out to all of the family and friends.

Yacht Rock wrote:I looked to see if they were LU students and it looks like they were.

Are you sure? I still haven't read or heard about that. The two individuals were 21 and not from Lynchburg, but I don't see anywhere that claims they were LU students.

EDIT: I did a quick FB search, and I have one "friend of a friend" with that name... who did have some connection to LU (He worked at SnowFlex, but was no longer employed there).

I remember as an RA having to read the list of "thou shall nots," which inevitably included wording about train tracks and bridges. If these were Liberty Students, and if they were 4 year seniors, then they had more than enough warning with the last incident being so recent.

For those who do not know, 2 of the first LU students to meet their end on that span were Macauley Rivera and his fiance Sharon. Our athletic department's highest annual honor is named after Mac and former football coach Rock Royer.

They were LU Students

This was Jon Gregoire's last FB post before he died.

"If life ends at the grave, then we have no ultimate purpose for living." - William Lane Craig

"The fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place. All come from the dust and all return to the dust." Ecclesiastes 3:19-20

We were created to enjoy, serve, love, and please our Creator! Why? Because there is ultimate and significant purpose in this! We are given value and purpose from the greatest being in the universe - God. Through His Son - Jesus Christ.

If there is no God, we could all live for ourselves and not worry about a single consequence. All of creation, people vs. animals; none of it would be different as it all would have been thrusted into existence with no purpose. The culmination: a meaningless death for all. That's all there would be - death. That would be our hope - to die. To get off this rock so we can cease to exist. To not have to persevere any longer through this life.

But if there is a God, (and I am without a shadow of a doubt sure of this through subjective experience, through objective moral reasoning, and through the revelation of absolute truth revealed in the Bible) than all of us should be worried. Worried that we will face a perfect, holy God who offered us purpose, and we rejected Him for insignificance. This is why we must give our lives to the God of the universe. To have ultimate purpose beyond ourselves, and to not waste this life in the insignificance of ourselves.

In Him, we have purpose and hope. He offers it so freely when we give up our insignificance in a radical exchange for His significance.

That's grace.
‪#‎socality‬

I'm sorry for this kids family and it's great to see he had his salvation worked out but wtf is any Liberty kid doing on the train tracks?!? Seriously I don't understand what it is with LU kids over on this bridge?!? I know this comes across as insensitive but there are accidents that happen that can't realistically be avoided this is the opposite of that.

It's not insensitive. In fact, it's reality and it's common sense.

I work in Maryland at a university, obviously different than Liberty. In a meeting with our Dean of Students in August, he made a staggering comment to me. He said the last two freshmen classes have lacked more common sense than any others. I chuckled and joked that that's all college students. He maintained a straight face and emphasized, "No, there was a severe drop off of sorts about two years ago. We don't know why! Ever since, it's been a total lack of common sense."

I have no idea why it's happening, but he's right!

Its happening because younger people believe that their virtual reality on Facebook and Twitter is their true reality.

Prayers for this kid's family, although it does beg the question: WHY GO OUT THERE????

ATrain wrote:Its happening because younger people believe that their virtual reality on Facebook and Twitter is their true reality.

Prayers for this kid's family, although it does beg the question: WHY GO OUT THERE????

amen. Its whats happens when there are never any 'real' consequences for anything. Danger becomes nonexistent.

I don't get all the "why would anyone do that?" hand-wringing. Do you really not understand why young people would do these things? Why we used to jump off the dam on the James, or off cliffs at the rock quarry up on Candler's, or a thousand other examples I could give? Sure, it's not always smart, usually really dangerous, but don't pretend you don't understand it.

I never went to the dam or the cliffs...and its NEVER smart to go out over an active railroad tressel. Some things are more risky than others...

Kids have been doing stupid crap like this for decades. Kids are a different kind of stupid to say the least but kids have always been dumb and think of themselves as indestructible. I always know when people have lost touch with their youth when they spew the whole "kids are more dumb these days" rhetoric.

If you look at these kids instagram its obvious this wasn't their first time over there. I get that kids are dumb and I did plenty of dumb things but this seems over the top reckless.

Imagine the conversation...

a) hey man lets go get some great pics out on that train bridge.
b) the bridge where that student got hit by a train a couple years ago?
a) yeah that one!
b) sounds great!

And again not to sound insensitive, but they were also illegally trespassing. Sure we all did stupid things as kids, but it wasn't just a bad (or stupid) idea, it was illegal. Civil disobedience is one thing when it's 'man's law' vs. 'God's law', but this doesn't qualify.

Just stupid, stupid kids. Now because of his stupidity his parents, family and friends have to suffer. His suffering is over, theirs are just starting and will be for the rest of theirs lives.

4everfsu wrote:Just stupid, stupid kids. Now because of his stupidity his parents, family and friends have to suffer. His suffering is over, theirs are just starting and will be for the rest of theirs lives.

Forget about the family, what about the train operator?

alabama24 wrote:

4everfsu wrote:Just stupid, stupid kids. Now because of his stupidity his parents, family and friends have to suffer. His suffering is over, theirs are just starting and will be for the rest of theirs lives.

Forget about the family, what about the train operator?

I wouldn't say forget about the family, but I'm sure the train operator probably has more than his/her fair share of grief and feelings of guilt as well...

I didn't mean to be harsh to the family, but to emphasize the hardship the railroad employees must be going through.

The engineer did not make a choice that there was a person or persons on the bridge nor could he try to make an emergency stop on the bridge once he saw them there. The students made a choice and a bad one. If I was the engineer I would feel bad but not to the point of beating myself up and blaming myself for his death. The choice was taken out of my hand when they got on the bridge.

4everfsu wrote:If I was the engineer I would feel bad but not to the point of beating myself up and blaming myself for his death.

That doesn't lessen the trauma. I have heard that the engineer from 2 years ago never returned to work (I can't verify, but it is from a good source).

From the class of 09 wrote:If you look at these kids instagram its obvious this wasn't their first time over there. I get that kids are dumb and I did plenty of dumb things but this seems over the top reckless.

Imagine the conversation...

a) hey man lets go get some great pics out on that train bridge.
b) the bridge where that student got hit by a train a couple years ago?
a) yeah that one!
b) sounds great!

The last picture on Jon's Instagram was taken on the trestle a week ago. He used the hashtag #adventuretillwedie. So sad, yet completely preventable. Stupid and senseless death.

4everfsu wrote:The engineer did not make a choice that there was a person or persons on the bridge nor could he try to make an emergency stop on the bridge once he saw them there. The students made a choice and a bad one. If I was the engineer I would feel bad but not to the point of beating myself up and blaming myself for his death. The choice was taken out of my hand when they got on the bridge.

You may think that, but hopefully and prayerfully you'll never be in that position to find out. We all agree the engineer is not at fault...but it is only human nature to feel guilt, even though the engineer could've done absolutely nothing to prevent it once the students made their choice.

Years ago a skateboarder travelled into a busy road from behind a tall bush and my brother hit him and killed him instantly. While my brother didn't do anything wrong, it has haunted him for years.

When you are involved in an accident and someone dies, it will impact you no matter who is at fault.

As a result of my brother's experience, he sought counseling and happened to be paired with a Christian counselor who led him to Christ.

The engineer and his family could use some prayer.

Prayers definitely needed for all involved. I heard that LU held a very meaningful convocation today for the family and friends of the student who died.