November/December 2001
Finding Hope in Tragedy
by J. Michael Feazell
| Who is this God who lets trauma and disaster devastate the hearts and hopes of people who love him and trust in him? |
The Bible tells us that God can be trusted to take good care of those who put their faith in him. But experience has taught us that sometimes life becomes a raging, stormy ocean of pain, grief and depression. In the swirling confusion, we cling with sore, tired arms to a ragged plank of faith, a faith that whispers in our drowning ears that somehow God is there, somehow he knows and somehow he won't leave us. It is all that gets us through -- this flickering little flame of trust in an invisible God who promises deliverance and security and hope.
Trusting God's love
God loves us, the Scriptures tell us. But when the doctor informs us our five-year-old has cancer, or we find out that our abusive spouse has also been molesting the children, or we wake up in a hospital to learn we lost our legs in a car wreck, or our mother is killed in a tornado, or someone we love is crushed to death trying to rescue others after a horrific terrorist attack, all this talk of "God's love" can seem crushingly hollow, if not downright offensive.
Who is this God who lets trauma and disaster devastate the hearts and hopes of people who love him and trust in him? Who is this invisible, silent God who claims to never leave nor forsake us? Where is he when we really need him?
As Christians, we believe that God does rescue us. But we believe he rescues us from what we actually need rescuing from, not from what we think we need rescuing from. The Bible tells us that our lives -- our families, our health, our fortunes -- are indeed important to God. It tells us that God is very concerned about our here and now circumstances, but in his unlimited love for us he is also concerned about far more than our present circumstances -- he is concerned about us -- forever.
The gospel assures us of an unassailable inheritance of salvation that awaits us in heaven (1 Peter 1:3-4), and it assures us that God protects us through faith, not necessarily from the trials and traumas of this life, but from whatever might attempt to wrest from us that salvation (verse 5). It is in the hope -- and assurance -- of that eternal salvation that we can take joy in this life, despite the evils that might befall us in the meantime (verse 6). Peter calls our faith, that is, our trust in God's faithfulness to keep his word to us, a faith that is forged in difficult, or fiery trials, more precious than gold (verse 7). Peter admits that we are asked to believe in a Savior we cannot see (verse 8), but assures us that our trust in and love for our invisible Savior gives us a present joy that is beyond description and that it will climax in glory and honor and salvation (verses 7-9).
Suffering God
Who is this God who lets his people suffer even though they cry out to him for deliverance? He is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God -- the one with the nail holes and the spear wound. You'll recognize him by the bloody mass of gashes and lacerations and the crown of thorns. He's the one they ridiculed and lied about. The one they spit on, beat up and murdered.
He is also the one who stays right by our side in all our pain and anguish. He suffers along with us through our every grief and heartache. He doesn't leave us -- not even in our darkest nightmare (Deuteronomy 31:8; Hebrews 13:5). But his presence is invisible. Instead of stopping all catastrophes here and now, he walks through them with us (Matthew 28:20).
Because Christ suffered for us, our tragedies are not meaningless, but are part of the fodder, the raw material, of our spiritual wholeness (Hebrews 2:14-15). We emerge from them stronger and wiser and lovelier, and as we keep our trust in our God who promises to be our salvation, we are, in his love, forged into deeper and richer unity with Christ and with one another.
-- J. Michael Feazell