Tragedy occurred at Virginia Tech today, where 33 people died as the result of a mass shooting. If you have not yet heard about this, go to cnn.com or any news site; it is the front page story, everywhere. Certainly, we must be in vigilant prayer for the families who have lost loved ones, for those injured physically and psychologically, and for the entire shocked and hurting campus and community. For me, and others, this event begs the inevitable question: “Why?”
Whenever tragedy happens, that question surfaces in one form or another. Usually it is: “Why did God let this happen?” There are myriad books written on this topic and I doubt I have anything new to add to the mix. In a nutshell: what happened today was the result of human choice, human sinfulness. That shooter made a choice--a horrible, awful, tragic choice--with life-altering effects for people who were just going about their ordinary days. God let’s us make choices. I believe it is a necessary part of being free people who were created with the ability to love God or to walk away. God didn’t want robots: He wants people who fully and freely choose to love Him. Who am I to question God, but I wonder if the “robot” thing wouldn’t have been a better deal. We really mess up this freedom thing. Is our un-fettered love really worth all this…worth 33 people needlessly dying? It makes me think of a short poem by Robert Frost, entitled “A Question”:
A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me, truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth.
There are a lot of questions I cannot fully answer. The only thing I know with any certainty is that God has proven His love and nearness to us, in the midst of suffering. The Cross shows us God's loving nature more than anything else, reminding us: that we are not alone, that God understands, that God cares, that we will never be abandoned.
I remember working as a chaplain at a Catholic hospital. In the “chapel” (which was the size of a cathedral), there was a huge cross mounted at the front of the sanctuary, complete with a life-sized form of Jesus hanging on it. In the middle of the night—when I was “on call”—I found myself in the darkened chapel. An 18 year old man had just died from injuries sustained in a car crash. I had stood prayerfully with the boy’s parents during the holy moment when he passed from life to death. I wept with them and prayed with them—and after it was all over, I was drained and confused. I didn’t understand why an all-powerful, all-loving God failed to step in, failed to heal, failed to be what I thought God should be in that time and place. In my grief, I went to the only place I could think to go: to the chapel, to seek God's presence. As I cried and wrestled in prayer, my eyes were drawn upward to that form, hanging on the cross. I looked at the feet and hands, pierced by shockingly huge nails. I stared at the head, bowed in agonizing sorrow, imagining my God bleeding and hurting, for the world...for me. God spoke to my soul in that sacred quietness. He didn’t answer my questions, at least not in the way I expected. Suddenly, though, I knew that God was there, RIGHT THERE in the midst of the pain and suffering. God understands. God "gets" it; He's been here; He has felt raw, agonizing, seemingly endless suffering. God is real…in a right-here-right-now kind of way…closer than our very breath, closer even, than our deepest pain. The Cross proves God's suffering, sacrificing closeness to His creatures...to you and me.
I couldn’t believe in God if it weren’t for Jesus. I guess I just need to know that God is real and interacting in my life and in the world. Some far off God does not work for me. But the kind of God who walks our streets, takes on our limitations, and enters into our sufferings…that’s the kind of God I want to know. Good news! The Scriptures say that Jesus is the fullness of God, a tangible picture of who God is and what God is like:
“He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. ~Colossians 1:15-20
That is my comfort in the midst of tragedy and suffering: We have a good God that is with us, even in the darkest hours—maybe even more profoundly present in the darkest times. I pray for the overwhelming sense of Jesus’ Presence to be with those at Virginia Tech. I invite you to join me in that prayer.
In closing, I searched the internet for quotes on pain and suffering. I thought I would share insight and wisdom of people much wiser than I am. May you be blessed by their thoughts.
Quotes on Pain and Suffering:
In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. ~Jesus Christ
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. ~C.S. Lewis
We all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person…the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus. ~Oswald Chambers
Far too often, however, we resent and resist any interference on God's part that might deprive us of our deepest desires. Many Christians who sing, 'It is well with my soul,' are lying. It is not well with their souls because they are not persevering, and they have no intention of doing so, because they are bitter and hostile toward God and mourn over their 'victimization' at His hands. Others are little better, for they 'persevere' with a cold, stony, stoic demeanor that constantly reminds God how much they are doing for Him despite His lack of reciprocity. ~Jim Owen
The world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it. ~Helen Keller
You may never know that JESUS is all you need, until JESUS is all you have. ~Corrie Ten Boom
My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon. ~Japanese poet Masahide
Pain is never permanent. ~Teresa of Avila
God is often (in some sense) nearer to us, and more effectually present with us, in sickness than in health...He often sends diseases of the body to cure those of the soul. Comfort yourself with the sovereign Physician of both the soul and the body. ~Brother Lawrence
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was within me an invincible summer. ~Camus
I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings. ~Elie Wiesel
Deep unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state. ~George Elliot
You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering. ~Henri-Frédéric Amiel
In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth, a life full of the most atrocious tortures on earth, will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel. ~Mother Teresa
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind. ~Aristotle
If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death, human life cannot be complete. ~Viktor Emil Frankl,
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. ~Elisabeth Kubler Ross
Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus. ~Wallace Stegner
Suffering is part of the human condition, and it comes to us all. The key is how we react to it, either turning away from God in anger and bitterness or growing closer to Him in trust and confidence. ~Billy Graham
Whenever tragedy happens, that question surfaces in one form or another. Usually it is: “Why did God let this happen?” There are myriad books written on this topic and I doubt I have anything new to add to the mix. In a nutshell: what happened today was the result of human choice, human sinfulness. That shooter made a choice--a horrible, awful, tragic choice--with life-altering effects for people who were just going about their ordinary days. God let’s us make choices. I believe it is a necessary part of being free people who were created with the ability to love God or to walk away. God didn’t want robots: He wants people who fully and freely choose to love Him. Who am I to question God, but I wonder if the “robot” thing wouldn’t have been a better deal. We really mess up this freedom thing. Is our un-fettered love really worth all this…worth 33 people needlessly dying? It makes me think of a short poem by Robert Frost, entitled “A Question”:
A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me, truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth.
There are a lot of questions I cannot fully answer. The only thing I know with any certainty is that God has proven His love and nearness to us, in the midst of suffering. The Cross shows us God's loving nature more than anything else, reminding us: that we are not alone, that God understands, that God cares, that we will never be abandoned.
I remember working as a chaplain at a Catholic hospital. In the “chapel” (which was the size of a cathedral), there was a huge cross mounted at the front of the sanctuary, complete with a life-sized form of Jesus hanging on it. In the middle of the night—when I was “on call”—I found myself in the darkened chapel. An 18 year old man had just died from injuries sustained in a car crash. I had stood prayerfully with the boy’s parents during the holy moment when he passed from life to death. I wept with them and prayed with them—and after it was all over, I was drained and confused. I didn’t understand why an all-powerful, all-loving God failed to step in, failed to heal, failed to be what I thought God should be in that time and place. In my grief, I went to the only place I could think to go: to the chapel, to seek God's presence. As I cried and wrestled in prayer, my eyes were drawn upward to that form, hanging on the cross. I looked at the feet and hands, pierced by shockingly huge nails. I stared at the head, bowed in agonizing sorrow, imagining my God bleeding and hurting, for the world...for me. God spoke to my soul in that sacred quietness. He didn’t answer my questions, at least not in the way I expected. Suddenly, though, I knew that God was there, RIGHT THERE in the midst of the pain and suffering. God understands. God "gets" it; He's been here; He has felt raw, agonizing, seemingly endless suffering. God is real…in a right-here-right-now kind of way…closer than our very breath, closer even, than our deepest pain. The Cross proves God's suffering, sacrificing closeness to His creatures...to you and me.
I couldn’t believe in God if it weren’t for Jesus. I guess I just need to know that God is real and interacting in my life and in the world. Some far off God does not work for me. But the kind of God who walks our streets, takes on our limitations, and enters into our sufferings…that’s the kind of God I want to know. Good news! The Scriptures say that Jesus is the fullness of God, a tangible picture of who God is and what God is like:
“He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. ~Colossians 1:15-20
That is my comfort in the midst of tragedy and suffering: We have a good God that is with us, even in the darkest hours—maybe even more profoundly present in the darkest times. I pray for the overwhelming sense of Jesus’ Presence to be with those at Virginia Tech. I invite you to join me in that prayer.
In closing, I searched the internet for quotes on pain and suffering. I thought I would share insight and wisdom of people much wiser than I am. May you be blessed by their thoughts.
Quotes on Pain and Suffering:
In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. ~Jesus Christ
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. ~C.S. Lewis
We all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person…the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus. ~Oswald Chambers
Far too often, however, we resent and resist any interference on God's part that might deprive us of our deepest desires. Many Christians who sing, 'It is well with my soul,' are lying. It is not well with their souls because they are not persevering, and they have no intention of doing so, because they are bitter and hostile toward God and mourn over their 'victimization' at His hands. Others are little better, for they 'persevere' with a cold, stony, stoic demeanor that constantly reminds God how much they are doing for Him despite His lack of reciprocity. ~Jim Owen
The world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it. ~Helen Keller
You may never know that JESUS is all you need, until JESUS is all you have. ~Corrie Ten Boom
My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon. ~Japanese poet Masahide
Pain is never permanent. ~Teresa of Avila
God is often (in some sense) nearer to us, and more effectually present with us, in sickness than in health...He often sends diseases of the body to cure those of the soul. Comfort yourself with the sovereign Physician of both the soul and the body. ~Brother Lawrence
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was within me an invincible summer. ~Camus
I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings. ~Elie Wiesel
Deep unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state. ~George Elliot
You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering. ~Henri-Frédéric Amiel
In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth, a life full of the most atrocious tortures on earth, will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel. ~Mother Teresa
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind. ~Aristotle
If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death, human life cannot be complete. ~Viktor Emil Frankl,
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. ~Elisabeth Kubler Ross
Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus. ~Wallace Stegner
Suffering is part of the human condition, and it comes to us all. The key is how we react to it, either turning away from God in anger and bitterness or growing closer to Him in trust and confidence. ~Billy Graham
1 comment:
Thank you Teener. This has helped bring a bit of much needed peace to my heart today. Love and miss you - Amy
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