How does tragedy shape us? How do bad things grow us?
Physical pain, sucks. As I approach the big 3-0, my body is doing weird things. I used to get injured being active and dancing. Now I sneeze too hard, or sleep slightly wrong and I’m in pain for 5 whole days.
However, emotional pain has nothing on physical pain. And this is coming from someone who was in labor for like 3 days. Emotional pain is something we have tried to describe. Writers everywhere have tried to come up with metaphors for emotional pain since Biblical times. Although some come close, no one can truly describe how it feels to have tragedy strike and feel the emotional pain.
It’s a lesson we as believers have always heard and want to reconcile. We try to encourage those going through hard times with lessons of perseverance, lessons of endurance, of “running the good race” and “fighting the good fight.” We teach on Job, and how he lost everything and still praised God. None of this is new, but it helps.
But, while Biblical truths can encourage, we’re still human, and humans are really, very stupid sometimes. When things are bad, we hear crazy things like “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” We listen to people quote Bible verses out of context. When my mom passed away, people were actually telling me that she was “up in heaven, serving cookies at the pearly gates.” I know people are just trying their best to cheer and lift my spirits, but pragmatically speaking do you REALLY think my mom wants be Heavens' GREETER? And do you really think people entering Heaven need cookies? I’m just saying, people have a very faulty understanding of the theology of Heaven, is all I’m saying. And as stated, I know people are trying their best to encourage and be kind, but in these cases, I am of the opinion that saying nothing, is better than saying anything.
Tragedy is one of those things, that we should know how to respond to, and yet no one really does. So honestly, practically, how do we actually use tragedy in our lives to grow us?
As is the theme of every single thing I write, I have no answers. Never had I ever had an answer to any question I’ve ever posed. If you have read my writing, you know this. You know I have never, and will never, title my blogs “10 tips to deal with death, tragedy, poverty, and how we can end world hunger in 15 easy steps.” That’s not a thing. Anyone who says they have the cure to heartache is lying. And I don’t want to mislead anyone ever. So that’s why I go on and on about me never having an answer.
While I don’t have answers, here’s what I do have: hope, faith, and love.
I know. Nothing I just said was a practical way to help anyone going through tragedy. And I am being extremely hypocritical- I literally JUST said “saying nothing, is better than saying anything.” Like, I literally just wrote those words, and yet, here I am, still saying things.
Let me just break it down slightly, if I may.
I have hope that, although the pain seems crazy terrible right now, I have hope in God’s promise that there are BETTER things in store for us: here on this earth, and after we leave here.
I have faith in a God that loves us a crazy amount! So crazy, He sent His son to die for me, and with this faith, I can be secure in the truth that He is never going to let me go.
Finally, I have love. Love for an amazing Savior, yes, but also love for those around me.
When my mom passed, it was easy to regret. I could have had regret for the time I lost with her, regret for the times I got an attitude and treated her so poorly. That was the easy thing for me to fall into. But instead, I tried my best to focus on all the amazing ways she taught me how to love others and love God. She showed me love really is a full verb. She loved when it was easy, but also she loved when her kids were being brats, she loved when parents of her students were being difficult, she loved. Period. I had to choose, and still do on rough days, to focus on the lessons she taught about love. We have nothing, if we do not have love.
How did this blog get here? How did we end up talking about rough stuff, to talking about love? Who knows how these blogs get anywhere?!
I suck at endings.
I guess I’m glad that, I have hope in a life that never ends.
Oh my gosh, that was the cheesiest thing I’ve ever written. I could erase it and try again. But, this is who I am: cheesy and hopeful.
I also get really sore from sneezing too hard. So that’s a thing too.
