In light of the tragedy in Oklahoma City this week, I thought I'd pass along some notes from a message I shared a while back on dealing with tragedy in life. It's a long read, but I hope you'll find it helpful.
Independence Day. Dante's Peak. Armageddon. 2012.
All of these movies have something in common. They are all about disasters that seem to come from nowhere. They all made a lot of money because people connect with the theme of a tragic situation that is so much bigger than all of us.
It's not just Hollywood. World War II cost the lives of over 50 million people. A tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 killed hundreds of thousands. Earthquakes that take decades to recover from. And now, a tornado in Oklahoma. These things can seem so much bigger than us, so out of our hands.
Going back to Jesus' time we find a prophecy of future tragedy...
In Matthew 24 it says, "Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
Now understand something....this temple took years to build. It was a massive construction project undertaken by Herod the Great in the years before Jesus was born. For Jesus to have said what he said....the modern equivalent would have been for someone to walk through the streets of downtown Manhattan and point to the twin towers of the World Trade Center and say “You know what? In a few years, these towers will be gone.” Unthinkable, ridiculous. Nobody expected something like that would happen.
Later on it continues: As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
You see he starts out talking about the Temple. And the destruction of the temple DID happen just 40 years later during a Jewish revolt against the Roman empire. But then he gets more personal. Personal tragedy can be even more devastating in our lives. Yes, its horrible to see the destruction in Oklahoma and imagine "what if" it happened here. But what is even scarier than that is that call in the middle of the night, or that diagnosis of a terminal illness, or a major blowup at home...those things that just seem to be out of our control and can radically change our lives in an instant. The story of Job in the Old Testament is a perfect example of this.
So there's bad news and good news. The bad news is this: Calamity, whether on a global scale, or in our community, or in our personal lives...WILL come. It's not a matter of IF but when. The good news is that it never takes God by surprise. We're not alone in the midst of it. God has always promised he would be with us through those times and he'll work out his perfect plan in our lives despite the circumstances if we allow him. So really, the only question for us is not if and when they will happen, but how are we going to respond when these life changing disruptions come into our lives?
Just some thoughts about how we can respond...
We can tell God how we feel – much of the book of Job is a back and forth between God and Job, as Job expresses his feelings and God responds. In Job 7:11 Job says, “Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul."
You know what? Our God is a really big God, and he can handle when we are brutally honest with Him. It's okay to tell him we're hurt, we're frustrated, we're angry. He can handle it!
We need to focus our attention on God. in Lamentations 3:19-26, the prophet Jeremiah says, "I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
I remember on 9/11, I was in staff meeting, and afterward we discussed how we'd respond as a church. Our doors were open 24/7 all week...people we never knew before came seeking God. Think of how many songs are written about living like you're dying.... when we face trouble, we refocus on what's important. Israel did the same thing....God would allow invasions, famines, etc to cause them to refocus on God, and usually it worked, at least for a time.
We should praise God in spite of the circumstances. That's what Job did. In Job 1:21 he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
In the film Facing the Giants a husband and wife are trying to conceive a child, unsuccessfully. In the midst of their trial the husband asks his wife, "Will you still love God if he never gives us a child?"
I pose that question to myself, and I pose it to you as well. Would you continue to love, trust, and follow God if your worst nightmares came true? I hope you would. God is worthy of our praise no matter what our present circumstances.
And for those who ask where was God when that tornado hit Oklahoma, or when you faced a personal tragedy of some kind...
– God is still a good and loving God – Paul wrote to the church in Rome, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
– God is still all-powerful When they refused to bow down to an idol, three exiled Jews recognized God's power in the midst of their circumstances, whether He chose to display it in their situation or not. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18
– God knows every detail of your life – again in Job 34:21 - “His eyes are on the ways of mortals; he sees their every step." – There's nothing that is happening in your life that God is not intimately aware of. He didn't suddenly disappear when things got rough. If he knows the number of the hairs on your head, as Scripture tells us he does, then he knows what you're going through right now.
– God is still in control - God may not have caused, or even desired a tragic event...but nothing in this world happens without God's permission. A while back my daughter Rachel was watching the Disney movie Anastasia, and she asked me what happened to the real Anastasia. I explained that Anastasia and her entire family were killed. She asked me, “Did God WANT her to die?” I had to explain to her that there are choices that people make in this world that God hates, but he does allow. It doesn't mean that God is powerless to stop it, but in His power he allows the effects of sin to run their course through this world. That means there are storms, both literal and figurative. There will come a day when he will put a stop to them, once and for all.
– God's Plan For Your Life Hasn't Changed. – When things in your life don't go as expected, God's plan for you hasn't changed. He has still created you to love and serve Him and love and serve others. He still saves all those who call upon his name and trust in Him. – So what is the worst that this life can throw at us? Death? Sorrow? Hurt, anger, frustration? All temporary. When we can begin to view the circumstances of life as God does, from an eternal perspective, it doesnt make life's challenges easy, but it does make them bearable.
Independence Day. Dante's Peak. Armageddon. 2012.
All of these movies have something in common. They are all about disasters that seem to come from nowhere. They all made a lot of money because people connect with the theme of a tragic situation that is so much bigger than all of us.
It's not just Hollywood. World War II cost the lives of over 50 million people. A tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 killed hundreds of thousands. Earthquakes that take decades to recover from. And now, a tornado in Oklahoma. These things can seem so much bigger than us, so out of our hands.
Going back to Jesus' time we find a prophecy of future tragedy...
In Matthew 24 it says, "Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
Now understand something....this temple took years to build. It was a massive construction project undertaken by Herod the Great in the years before Jesus was born. For Jesus to have said what he said....the modern equivalent would have been for someone to walk through the streets of downtown Manhattan and point to the twin towers of the World Trade Center and say “You know what? In a few years, these towers will be gone.” Unthinkable, ridiculous. Nobody expected something like that would happen.
 | |
| Model of Herod's Temple as it appeared in Jesus' time |
You see he starts out talking about the Temple. And the destruction of the temple DID happen just 40 years later during a Jewish revolt against the Roman empire. But then he gets more personal. Personal tragedy can be even more devastating in our lives. Yes, its horrible to see the destruction in Oklahoma and imagine "what if" it happened here. But what is even scarier than that is that call in the middle of the night, or that diagnosis of a terminal illness, or a major blowup at home...those things that just seem to be out of our control and can radically change our lives in an instant. The story of Job in the Old Testament is a perfect example of this.
So there's bad news and good news. The bad news is this: Calamity, whether on a global scale, or in our community, or in our personal lives...WILL come. It's not a matter of IF but when. The good news is that it never takes God by surprise. We're not alone in the midst of it. God has always promised he would be with us through those times and he'll work out his perfect plan in our lives despite the circumstances if we allow him. So really, the only question for us is not if and when they will happen, but how are we going to respond when these life changing disruptions come into our lives?
Just some thoughts about how we can respond...
We can tell God how we feel – much of the book of Job is a back and forth between God and Job, as Job expresses his feelings and God responds. In Job 7:11 Job says, “Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul."
You know what? Our God is a really big God, and he can handle when we are brutally honest with Him. It's okay to tell him we're hurt, we're frustrated, we're angry. He can handle it!
We need to focus our attention on God. in Lamentations 3:19-26, the prophet Jeremiah says, "I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
I remember on 9/11, I was in staff meeting, and afterward we discussed how we'd respond as a church. Our doors were open 24/7 all week...people we never knew before came seeking God. Think of how many songs are written about living like you're dying.... when we face trouble, we refocus on what's important. Israel did the same thing....God would allow invasions, famines, etc to cause them to refocus on God, and usually it worked, at least for a time.
We should praise God in spite of the circumstances. That's what Job did. In Job 1:21 he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
In the film Facing the Giants a husband and wife are trying to conceive a child, unsuccessfully. In the midst of their trial the husband asks his wife, "Will you still love God if he never gives us a child?"I pose that question to myself, and I pose it to you as well. Would you continue to love, trust, and follow God if your worst nightmares came true? I hope you would. God is worthy of our praise no matter what our present circumstances.
And for those who ask where was God when that tornado hit Oklahoma, or when you faced a personal tragedy of some kind...
– God is still a good and loving God – Paul wrote to the church in Rome, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
– God is still all-powerful When they refused to bow down to an idol, three exiled Jews recognized God's power in the midst of their circumstances, whether He chose to display it in their situation or not. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18
– God knows every detail of your life – again in Job 34:21 - “His eyes are on the ways of mortals; he sees their every step." – There's nothing that is happening in your life that God is not intimately aware of. He didn't suddenly disappear when things got rough. If he knows the number of the hairs on your head, as Scripture tells us he does, then he knows what you're going through right now.
– God is still in control - God may not have caused, or even desired a tragic event...but nothing in this world happens without God's permission. A while back my daughter Rachel was watching the Disney movie Anastasia, and she asked me what happened to the real Anastasia. I explained that Anastasia and her entire family were killed. She asked me, “Did God WANT her to die?” I had to explain to her that there are choices that people make in this world that God hates, but he does allow. It doesn't mean that God is powerless to stop it, but in His power he allows the effects of sin to run their course through this world. That means there are storms, both literal and figurative. There will come a day when he will put a stop to them, once and for all.
– God's Plan For Your Life Hasn't Changed. – When things in your life don't go as expected, God's plan for you hasn't changed. He has still created you to love and serve Him and love and serve others. He still saves all those who call upon his name and trust in Him. – So what is the worst that this life can throw at us? Death? Sorrow? Hurt, anger, frustration? All temporary. When we can begin to view the circumstances of life as God does, from an eternal perspective, it doesnt make life's challenges easy, but it does make them bearable.
Pray for the people of Oklahoma. Pray especially for parents who lost children...by the last figure I read, at least twenty of them. Their lives will never be the same. They need our prayers. They need our love. One day that may be us. The good news is, God is already there.
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