THOUGHTS ON TRAGEDY

There are only two ways to go through life…with Jesus or without Him. It’s the difference between a life of emptiness or fullness, insignificance or meaning, and despair or hope.

As is true with life, so it is with tragedy. We can go through it with Jesus or without Him. Going through tragedy with Jesus doesn’t eliminate the tragedy. It doesn’t lessen it. It doesn’t explain it. It doesn’t get rid of the pain, confusion, anger, or grief. It doesn’t change what happened.

(Even Jesus wept in the wake of the tragedy of His friend Lazarus’ death. He wept… even in light of the fact that He was going to raise him from the dead. This helps us to understand that hope doesn’t eliminate the pain of loss…the devastation of tragedy. But, it gives perspective. It gives strength and reason to keep loving, working and living. It makes it possible to go on in a world that’s been forever changed.)

There are no easy answers for tragedies like those that happened in Newtown, Connecticut yesterday. In fact, there are no answers of any kind. There are no solutions. It’s unthinkable. It’s unexplainable. It hurts, confuses, shakes, and angers us.

But, it happened. We have to go through it. We have only two options…will we do it with despair or hope, without any source of comfort or with the only source for comfort…without Jesus or with Him.

Psalm 23:4 – Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

I choose Jesus. I hope you will as well. And, because I choose Jesus, I’m praying for those in the center of this tragedy…that they will know Jesus’ presence as they walk through this incomprehensible valley of evil, darkness, loss, tragedy, grief, and death.