The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.Psalm 34:18
This has been a hard week that, I'm sure, many are asking, 'how much more tragedy can I possibly take? When ABC news correspondent Peter Jennings came out of retirement to help report the events of 9/11 he started smoking again just to stabilize his nerves from having to report the biggest tragedy in his lifetime. It wasn't long after he started that habit that he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and passed away.
Tragedy will do that to us. When it does, many of us will ask, 'where is God, why don't you just show up?' For some, when it seems our response falls on deaf ears we run away from God repeating the same mantra in our heads, " If there really was a God, he wouldn't let bad things happen to me!" In short, we blame God for every catastrophe in our lives, big or small, while taking our life back from God because we think we can do so much better than the mythological God written in a fairy tale book.
Once we declare that declaration in our minds, we begin a downward spiral into a never-ending despair, a despair that seems to have no end.
Instead of running from God in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Irma, Maria, Katia and the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas, God wants us to run to him for the source all comfort and healing.
In fact, in each of those national catastrophy's God has sent his finest from the Salvation Army to the American Red Cross, to unsung heroes to rescue many in harms ways.
While many were running away from the Las Vegas shooter, others were running back in to try to rescue as many as they could who were in harm's way. You may never hear about them because they did it not for the fame or notoriety, but because it was the right thing to do.
I have discovered in my own personal tragedy that God is near to the brokenhearted and those crushed in spirit. He keeps reminding me daily that he hasn't abandoned me as I travel the sad journey of missing a loved one.
This pain may hurt for a while, but I assure you that if you take the step of leaning into your grief while letting yourself cry, avoiding any alcohol and mind-numbing drugs, placing one foot in front of the other running to the nearest Christian church regardless of how you feel from moment to moment, the empty hole in your heart will gradually be filled with God's love for you.
God formed you in the womb. You were uniquely made and like two snowflakes neither are the same. He has a very special plan for your life. Embrace that plan and keep on living and traveling and enjoying this life while trusting Him for the unwritten chapters of your story.
For those suffering the pain of loss, I urge you to get into a griefshare group near you. www.griefshare.org
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