tragedy

Where is God when it hurts?

...when you hurt over an ended relationship
...when you hurt over a lack of a relationship
...when you hurt over crisis in your life (i.e. finances, family, friends)
...when you hurt because of death, tragedy…

............crisis, tragedy...........

We are all on a journey in life. Some parts are high, others are low. But in the end, where our heart is… is what matters most. We try to avoid the low parts, the parts when we hurt, but we know they only make us stronger and it’s how you react to those low parts that shape our lives.

In the moment you feel so abandoned by God, He is working in your heart.

God will use who and what He wants to use to accomplish what he wants to do in your lives. (Job 12:13-14; Ecclesiastes 3:1)

"My prayers are with you…”

When tragedy strikes, so many people are quick to say that. Am I out of line to say that it’s beginning to sound like a cliché? Do people really truly pray for those who are faced with adversity, or it is all for show or simply something to say when something bad happens. We are so quick to cling to God when our worlds are crashing down on us. I feel like so many of us have grown up on our parent’s faith, or our small town’s faith, yet we have yet to build our own faith. If you’re going to say you will pray for someone… do it, because they need our prayers. And do it with a sincere heart.

Yeah, we may have all prayed that prayer as a child, but as adults we have a responsibility for our own lives. Our parents will not be there to account for our lives when it comes to the day we come face to face with God.

Just because God forgives us and gives second changes, it is not a license to keep living our lives the way we want to and go back to what we’ve done before. Doing so is mocking the cross, and sinning out of pleasure and joy over and over again because we know He will forgive us is like nailing Him to the cross over and over again. (Piper)

Yet, through tragedy, so much as happened this week that reminds me of God’s protection.

Last week my friend’s parents were involved in a huge scare on an airplane where their engine failed coming home from the Dominican Republic. This was actually a second plane they had boarded because their first plane wouldn’t ascend. After an emergency landing back in the D.R., they were safe. God protected them.

My roommate and I were in a minor wreck on Saturday night. It could have been a lot worse than it was. God protected us.

...The Bluffton bus wreck. It was really a tragedy, and I hate all of it and my heart aches for everyone involved. I feel connected, as I realize 5-6 years ago I would have known everyone on that team, plus with the Berne students and families involved. South Adams has had someone on that team almost every year for a long time now. It could have very easily been the track team when my brother Jeff was on it 5 years ago. It’s almost to the point where I can place myself there that morning because my thoughts and prayers have not left those involved… yet I know that my thoughts about it are nowhere near the horror it must have been.

What so many people are focusing on is the bad in this accident, and it’s easy to do. I have been doing it too. But God’s protection was placed all over that accident. For those that survived, the numbers could have been switched around and 28 died, not 7. God knew it was going to happen before it did. He knew which players would survive. Those that survived were in the seats they were on the bus at that moment for a reason.

As everyone says, God isn’t finished with the survivors yet. There’s a plan for their lives. God can create storms to bring His children back to Him.

It is up to use to make the decision to run father from Him or draw near to Him, and running from God always comes at a price to others. He is the ultimate comfort. God’s hand was all over the bus that morning, and He WAS protecting them.

But what about those whose lives were taken in the accident?

Where was God’s protection then?

God has a plan that we cannot even begin to trace. That is one of the mysteries of God that I personally do not want to know. If we seriously knew God’s will for our lives, how exciting would that be? We would know exactly when we die, and would be counting our days.

If 7 people dying in this wreck brings 7 people home to Christ… I don’t know… it just seems to work. Everything ends up “working” when God in involved, and we as humans cannot attempt to understand it. He can bring good out of the bad.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

While the plan may not be as beautiful for use here on earth, it is beautiful for God. He works for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28)

All He asks of us is to trust Him.

So where IS God when it hurts?

He is WITH YOU! Where He loves to be. Right by your side. When you can’t feel Him, turn to Him, ask Him to reveal himself to you, because he is there. Maybe He already has revealed Himself, but other things has caused you to inadvertently avoid His knocking…but He is there and will always listen, no matter how many times we have ignored Him. What Amazing Grace!

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Where is God when it hurts? He is in us-not in the things that hurt-helping to transform bad into good. We can safely say that God can bring good out of evil; we cannot say that God brings about the evil in hopes of producing good.” –Phillip Yancey

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I lay myself at Your feet
Asking You won't You meet
Won't You meet me
I cannot do it on my own
I cannot do it all alone
Here I am, oh, tonight
With my arms open wide
Won't You come inside
Won't You come inside,
GodCome and fill this heart of mine
I'm in need of You
Of Your touch, of Your life, of Your love
I need YouI need You
~”Here I Am” Shawn McDonald

*A couple of things I turned to for this long drawn out blog:
Bk: “Where is God when it Hurts?” Philip Yancey.
Bk: “Don’t Waste Your Life” John Piper
Ron Williams message, March 4, 2007 (check it out on the Pathway Podcast)