What do we do when tragedy hits home? How do we respond? Last week, three young men died in my community. You might have seen the story on the news. I awoke on Tuesday and strangely felt prompted to check my Instagram. Weird right? As it opened my feed was full of people mourning the death of these three young men. My heart sunk and immediately felt burdened. I did not personally know these young men, but the students my husband and I minster to did. I started asking God what do I do? God, what do I say?
My week was full of prayer vigils, memorial services, intentional conversations with mourning students, times of personal prayer, and heartache. Heaviness filled my heart. My heart was broken for the families who lost children. My heart was burdened for our church staff as they ministered to our community. My heart was torn for the young man that remained alive who drove the car and had lost brothers & a friend.
In the midst of this God brought me to Job chapter 1. Here was Job, in chapter 1 he lost everything. His servants, his livestock, and his children had all just died. In a short moment, so much was lost. I read this chapter and as I read the last three verses I stopped with awe. After all of this, how did Job respond?
"Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD." Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God." Job 1:20-22
I looked at these verses and could not believe Job's response. Job fell down and worshiped God. That was His first response. He recognized that God is the one who gives all good things and in His sovereignty He can take them away. Job blessed God.
So what can we learn from Job in the midst of tragedy? I must confess I felt ill prepared when tragedy struck our community. I have learned many lessons this week, but mostly that in the midst of tragedy I must seek God, I must walk in faith, and I must walk in an attitude of worship. When tragedy strikes we cannot seek to put the blame or be angry at God. We in turn must trust and worship Him.
Ashlee, there is a book by Michael Card called "A Sacred Sorrow." While I have not read the entire book, I have read a portion or all of the section regarding Job. It was really good for me in the early stages of my grief and as I dealt with not feeling like I really wanted to worship God. If you are a reader, I recommend checking it out, it is really helpful.
ReplyDelete~K