Can I be like Malala?

What is on my heart this Nairobi evening? I am thinking about the recent violence here at the Westgate Mall.  Many people here are naturally still on edge, watchful, fearful. Before and after coming I have been watchful, careful.

Then, Malala came to my mind - the amazing 16 year old Pakistani girl-saint with a passion for education and peace. As many of us have read or heard, she said that if someone comes to attack her again and she has a gun that she would not shoot them.

How can she say that? Doesn’t she want to live? Doesn’t she think her life is important? Certainly her answer would be yes to both questions. Then how can she feel this way?

I think that she has decided deep in her heart to be a person who meets violence with non-violence, fear with courage and hatred with compassion. How did she learn this? How can she do this? Who is she? What is she?

My question tonight is how can I be like Malala? How can I be a person of nonviolence, courage and compassion?

What if there were millions of Malala's? What difference could it make to a world racked with fear, anger and hatred? Surely it would make a world of difference.