Trees snap. Rooftops sail through the air. Cars tumble. Walls collapse.
Water engulfs the land. A hurricane tears the shore asunder. An earthquake
swallows cities. Terrorists threaten civilizations.
We will be tested. Our lives filled with prestige, power, possessions, ease,
and comfort can suddenly be assaulted. Through no fault of our own, we can lose
everything.
When we suffer loss our utmost trial may not be pain and
misery, but, instead, our supreme challenge may come from trying to understand
why God allowed us to suffer.
Until calamity plagues us we think we know all the answers. When
disaster strikes we realize that our knowledge is like a like a drop of water
in a vast and tumbling sea.
Only God knows exactly why things happen as they do. God, omnipotent and
omniscient, may allow tragic events to unfold in ways that we fail to
understand:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowlege of God!
How unsearchable his judgment,
And his paths beyond tracin out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God,
That God should repay him?
Far from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever!
Romans
11:33-36
When disaster strikes we can be comforted by God’s desire for our lives:
- God’s intentional aspiration: that all of us would trust him, love and glorify him, and put him first in our lives.
- God’s ultimate expectation: the redemption of man. Man returns to faith in God despite tragedy and hardship.
To be in God’s will provides peace for three reasons:
- We lose the fear of being alone and becoming overwhelmed. The dread of self-blame recedes. We consider tragedy and as an event that can bring us closer to God.
- In times of despair, discouragement, and defeat the love of God will give us hope in recovery.
- He can give us courage, power, and the wisdom to soar, to surge, to rise above catastrophe.
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