I wish it were not so, but we all experience heartbreak, sickness, sorrow, tragedy, destruction, wounds and death in this life. Some of us have experienced a deeper level of hell than others, but we have all felt the winds of the storms that show signs of the curse. And when the hurricane hits it is not the time to make things worse. Everything is going wrong! How could anything make it worse?
Well, if we want to survive a hurricane we need to take steps to better weather the storm and to limit our vulnerability. It's not the time to go sailing. It's not the time to take a stroll down the street. It's not a time to smile the pain away and pretend the problem doesn't exist. It doesn't protect us from the tragedies that come to push it all down into a box and whistle until the pressure finally causes an explosion of pain and problems when the storm can no longer be contained or held back. It's also not a time to panic and be guided purely by emotion and reaction, as storms bring fear, which brings anger. Anger and fear, when driven by the storms, do a lot of collateral damage to our lives and the lives of those around us.
Switching metaphors, failing to treat our troubles leads to infection and blood poisoning of the spirit. Just because we are able to cover a wound and keep it below the surface doesn't mean that it is healing, and it doesn't mean that it isn't killing us. We see a scab or even new skin on the surface but below that, being carried through every nook and cranny of our being, is sickness, anger and depression. Maybe we assign blame, aiming arrows of resentment at God, ourselves and or others. It may seem like it makes us feel better or even strengthens us, but giving into bitterness actually only magnifies the destruction of tragedy, spreads the infection and destroys the good in life. It leaves us scarred, twisted, and deformed from what we have experienced and gone through. We can't live life to it's fullest. We can't stand under the weight of guilt and blame and bitterness, becoming crippled.
So if we can't push it down or pretend it doesn't exist, fake it till we make it or react instinctively, what are we supposed to do when everything goes wrong and life turns horrible? Is all really lost? Does this tragedy mean God doesn't love us or care for us? It can feel that way, because we have some messed up idea that if we are good, or good enough, it's supposed to work as storm prevention. We want to believe that if God loves us nothing bad will ever happen in our lives. But the problem with that lie is that when bad things do happen, and they will, it leaves us questioning the love of God.
God never promised anyone, not even His only Son, a safe, trouble free, painless journey through life. Nowhere does He promise to instantly take away all our pain or remove every obstacle and struggle from life, not on this side of eternity anyway. That's just not how it works. We're promised beauty from ashes, which means there was tragedy and destruction that caused the ash from which to bring beauty from. We are promised grace to endure and overcome, which means there will be things we have to overcome and endure. We are promised new life from death, which means that there will be times when death works in situations and aspects of our life. We are told that God will be with us so that we don't have to be afraid of evil as we walk through the valley of the shadow, but that means we will walk through that valley. We are never promised we can skip it or avoid it or that it will be removed. We are promised that He will be there with us, that He will never leave us or forsake us and that He is and always will be a place of refuge and a help if we turn to Him in times of need.
God is there, as He promised, waiting for us to turn to Him, to cry out to Him for help and comfort and grace. He will not force Himself on us, but He will respond to our seeking Him, because He longs to be gracious to us. It is His greatest desire to have relationship with us, fellowship with us, to heal the brokenhearted and set the captive free. He is our source of Comfort. He is not a magic genie to make everything perfect, but someone who can be closer than a lover, offering true comfort and strength to us as He goes through the storms with us and keeps us afloat no matter how rough the seas get.
Seek Him in the darkness and the turmoil of the storm. Acknowledge His presence in the boat of your life. We can yell at Him if that's where we need to start. He's a big God. He can take it. He knows what we're feeling and what's in our heart better than we do anyway, so there's no point in trying to word things a certain way or hold back like we would with a person. He knows. So lay it out. When we're hurting and confused and scared because of the pain and tragedy it's Ok to start from a place of expressing that. But let's not stay there. Let's remember that He cares for us and loves us, even as life tears us apart. Like a mother pouring alcohol in a child's wound to help heal and prevent infection is acting out of love, even as the pain worsens, and not in fact ignoring her child's cries or torturing the them. Let's give Him a hug of praise and thanksgiving for His love.
Sometimes the pain is caused by what it will take to make things better instead of letting them kill us. He is good, even though the alcohol stings and burns. Even though He's making the wound bleed, thereby cleaning the wound, instead of sealing the cut shut like we want. Remember the mother pouring alcohol in the wound? Remember what happened next? The coolness of her comforting breath as she blew softly to easy the sting and burn? I know it hurts and burns, but it will be OK. This will make it better. This part hurts, but we need to go through it so that it will heal properly. Let me blow on it and ease your pain. Seek God's loving comfort and those who comfort and encourage as we go through the necessary steps to heal, even though they hurt. Beware the false comfort of those who encourage us to feed our anger and bitterness and self pity, as this may hurt less than what feels like alcohol in our wound but actually increases our chances of infection.
As much as we would like to avoid all tragedy and trouble, these things help us grow stronger. They help us learn, they teach us to fly, and they make us empathetic to the needs and hurts of others while giving us experience to help them. The struggle to escape the cocoon, which seems safe but will eventually kill us if we don't escape it, is what allows the butterfly to thrive and live ad be beautiful. Because no matter what it feels like, there is nothing new under the sun, and we are never experiencing unique tragedy. We can come through struggle and tragedy stronger, healthier, as we learn to care for others and learn to rely on God, or we can embrace bitterness. The first option makes life better for us and others. The second simply makes us and everyone around us miserable.
Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on
May 18, 2016.
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