"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." - Robert Frost
Tragedy: n. a sudden violent event that brings about great loss or destruction
Synonyms: calamity, debacle, catastrophe, disaster, upheaval, collapse(1)
In life tragedy strikes seemingly out of nowhere and rips your life apart before you even know what hit you. The hurricane hits landfall. The wildfire ravages acres of grassland. The tornado rips across the land. The flood comes rushing in out of nowhere.
The emotional and spiritual storms we encounter in life are just as destructive as the physical storms, if not more so.
You receive the phone call that changes your life forever. Your spouse tells you he wants out of your marriage. Your child is diagnosed with a terminal illness. You have lost your job, your house, your car, and everything you held dear. Death has stolen the life of your loved one long before you were ready to say good-bye. Addiction has completely overtaken someone you love. You are faced with overwhelming, devastating circumstances that are far beyond your control or ability to handle on your own. Your life has been turned completely upside down and you are left sifting through the ash, dust, and rubble where the life you built once stood.
You wonder how on earth you got here and how can you possibly get through this. Do you even want to get through it? Memories, thoughts, and emotions flood your mind in an unending torrent that leaves you more lost and confused by the sheer paralyzing magnitude of it all. Your thoughts and feelings are erratic, and you have no idea what to do. The storm leaves behind chaos, destruction, trauma, and devastation that impacts every single area of your life. It leaves you feeling lost and alone and shattered beyond belief. The pain is crushing and more than you can bear. No one seems to really understand the battle you are facing, if they even see it at all. Your life was completely decimated and for everyone else it was just a typical Tuesday. Life goes on, whether you want it to or not.
I know how overwhelming and crushing these storms of life can be, because I have had to live through several of my own. When my husband told me he wanted out of our marriage, I was crushed. I had been praying for years that God would heal our marriage and I believed with my whole heart that He would. As long as we both loved each other and we kept pushing forward, God would make things right in the end. But He didn’t. At least not the way I believed that He would.
So, I had a choice. I could sit in the destruction and allow the bitterness, pain, resentment, and hurt to grow causing more devastation; or I could turn to God wholeheartedly and ask Him to help me get through what I could not do on my own. My husband was living an extremely self-destructive life and I had experienced firsthand the catastrophic effects that caused. I was too hurt to handle any more pain. It wasn’t really a completely conscious choice to turn to God and away from destruction. It was more an act of self-preservation. It was obvious that my life wasn’t going to end. Trust me, I tried. God said no. So, I had to find a way to live the life I was given - the life I was left with, the life I did not want.
You have a choice. Even when it doesn’t feel like it, you have a choice. You can choose life or death. You can choose to trust God to bring good from evil or you can give in to the evil surrounding you. You can find God’s truth to battle your circumstances or you can listen and give in to the whispered lies of the Enemy.
Joshua 24:15 says to choose today whom you will serve. Each and every day (sometimes many, many times a day), I had to choose who I would serve, who I would trust in, who I would believe. I made the conscious choice to follow God every single day. I told Him I didn’t want my life, my husband didn’t want my life; but apparently, He did, and I fully surrendered it to Him. I didn’t have the answers, but I knew the One who did. I had made a mess of my life, but God promises that He makes all things beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). I trusted Him to make a better life from the ashes of the one that had been lost and destroyed. In Him, all things are made new.
When you are faced with the traumatic storms of life where will you turn? Where will your strength come from? Where will your help come from? Who will you choose to serve today?
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