Loss hurts. It always
does. That’s because loss is often
something we don’t expect, and it requires adjustments on our part. When we face losses, it is a challenge to find a way to move from
feeding the negative results of loss
in our lives to focusing on the positive
things God can do in us through the loss.
Today I’m thinking about some of the people at the church I
used to attend. Over the weekend, the
church’s active and experienced hiking group was kayaking in Puget
Sound near the shores of the Olympic Peninsula and suddenly faced
a bad storm. Two of the members of the
group perished and another is in critical condition in the hospital. In just a few minutes of time, a fun outing
on a beautiful day turned into an experience of great loss. What are the survivors and the rest of the
church supposed to do now as they try to cope?
In the midst of a series of losses in my own life, God
reminded me through his Word that we
always have a choice how we respond:
“Even
though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even
though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will
rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in
the God of my salvation! The Sovereign
Lord is my strength! He makes me as
surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.”
Habakkuk
3:17-19
I don’t want to sound trite in the face of the loss of
physical life that my fellow Christians are facing today. But these verses show us that we can choose to focus on the loss, or we can choose to praise God in spite of the
loss. We can let our feelings be
controlled by what has happened to us, or we can let faith in God override our
natural inclination to negative thinking.
By fixing our eyes on God instead of the loss, we are able to make the
choice to praise regardless of what has happened to us. Not because of what has happened, but in
spite of what we’ve lost.
And as we get further away from the immediate experience of
loss, we will find other reasons to praise when we begin to see God’s redemption of our losses. What I mean by this is that our brokenness now can be used by God in the future to bring him glory and
affect others in a positive way. This is
where God’s formulas don’t necessarily match up with ours: often our ability to
be used by God after loss is not in spite
of the loss but actually because of
the loss. My stories of God’s work in my
life through loss are some of my most important stories because he has infused my losses with his power to
help others.
Praying for healing and for the responses of everyone
involved in this latest incident of loss – and for God’s redemption of this
loss in the future as the survivors choose to be used by God for his glory . .
.
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