As the Nation Mourns, by Scipio

As the nation mourns the loss of so many lives, especially tender young lives, the nation is in search for answers. Grief doesn’t come knocking, it kicks in your door.  Since the nationwide floods caused such a shocking sudden loss of life, property, and means of income, the blame game has already started. Yet, beyond that, there is a deeper search for answers.  These are questions that are directed to God, not ones asked of local and national governments.

The most often asked question is “Why?”  Unfortunately, that answer never comes. When someone loses a loved one, especially in a tragic loss, the silence from Heaven is unbearable.  It’s not that God doesn’t care, indeed he does.  All those lives lost were his family also.  He loved them and knew them intimately better than anyone. If God did choose to explain, would it fill the hole in their hearts?  Would it bring them back?

For those who trust in God for unanswered questions and follow him by submitting their lives under the Cross, these tragedies become our scars, our cross to bear.  I was a fencer in college. Fencers get their forearms beaten up, and after a match it leaves giant red whelps from your elbow to your wrist. Afterwards you compare your “scars” with fellow fencers.  Only other fencers know this price you pay to fence.  In the old days when fencing was deadly sword fighting and the best forearm protection would not keep you from getting scars, they would later be proof you fought, you were in a battle. This is referred to in Shakespeare’s play Henry V:

“He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’”

All those who lost loved ones in the last few days now have battle scars to live with and will commemorate this sad day forever.  It is a terrible price to pay.  If today’s survivors were not aware of it before, they are in a spiritual battle, and now they have the scars to prove it.

God does, thankfully, give us instructions for troubled times.  In I Thessalonians 5:18 the Apostle Paul writes, “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God.”  Paul was in jail when he wrote this, with little prospect of getting out alive. He did not have good “circumstances”.  He had little to be thankful for but yet everything to be thankful for in his relationship with Christ.

This scripture isn’t about denial; it’s about fighting fear, hopelessness, and not giving up. It brings back your focus on God.  What is most difficult for us today is in Paul’s instruction he tells us to give thanks “IN” your circumstances.  With the tragedies we have seen, it’s impossible to give thanks without God, yet with God it is possible. These instructions are counter intuitive but it’s God’s mysterious way to change us in our circumstances, not to change our circumstances.

Further Paul writes in Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious for anything, but in every situation, in prayer, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

These are hard times for many people, and for caring Americans everywhere, but Jesus Christ is our only comfort in times like this.  Answers can’t be found but God’s comfort can be.  May God’s mercy and grace be upon those who mourn.