Moving past tragedy

I confess that today I am writing about something of which I have no personal experience. I am talking about personal tragedy by which I mean circumstances that are outside the experience of most people and which have such an impact on a person’s life that it changes them forever. Nevertheless, despite my lack of experience, there are some in the Bible and others who I know who have suffered and overcome this level of tragedy.

Most of us have had some very difficult circumstances such as the death of someone close to us, the loss of a job or an accident, all of which will have impacted our lives. However there seems to be a level of tragedy which can affect a life in such a way that they find it almost impossible to move on. Life stops and they get stuck at that moment and though everyday life continues, underlying it is a sorrow of the heart or even a bitterness of the spirit that seems impossible to shift.

However there is always God; the God who loves us and for whom nothing is impossible. Only he can heal the bitterly wounded and rescue those drowning in sorrow. We see it most obviously in Job, the man who had everything taken from him and who battled with God and his unhelpful friends but who never gave up. God then intervened and following Job’s incredible God encounter that literally shook him to the core, God restored and increased all that had been lost.

I know of a lady in South Africa who was married with two sons but the marriage was on the rocks. The husband persuaded a doctor friend to have his wife committed to a mental institution though there was nothing wrong with her. By the time she persuaded the doctors there that she was perfectly sane and was released, her husband had absconded from the country, taking their sons with her and clearing out all their money from the banks. She had nothing and even her own family were unhelpful. She has never seen her husband or sons again.

This level of tragedy could have caused her life and especially her relationship with God to come to a grinding halt. Instead, over time, she found forgiveness and healing and God has used her to talk to others in similar circumstances to help them through and out the other side of their tragedy to a place where their lives can begin to function again.

The key seems to be acknowledging all that has gone on and letting God touch every area. There may be areas that are so painful, so difficult that they have to be hidden away till God and time have done a measure of healing. Then they can be brought gently out for God’s divine touch. There may have been great injustice and only letting God help you find forgiveness will bring release and healing.

Why? will almost certainly be the word on your lips and in your heart and you may not ever have a satisfactory answer to this question. God however wants to take your hand and help you climb over the wall that Why? represents and help you trust him with that answer. He wants to help you move on. He wants to rebuild your life. He wants to give you hope.

I confess again this is an area of which I have no personal experience but I know and read about others who have overcome personal tragedy through the God whose love is limitless, who is bigger than anything we can think or imagine and who never leaves us – ever. He truly is the God of all hope.