Faith Filled Family Magazine August 2016 | Page 38

If we are honest, after any tragedy, we are all faced with the
question: “Why?” Especially
where Christians are involved
and probably had parents, pastors and family praying for
them and for their protection.
So why do accidents like these
still happen and how can we as
Christians respond when they
happen to us or to those nearest
to us?
GOD IS GOOD
If you are the one sitting next
to an empty chair at the dining
room table today, I am very sorry.
I promise to tread gently around
your wound, but I need to clean
it first, with the truth:
God is good. He did not cause
that accident. He did not need
“another angel in heaven” and
He did not “pick the most beautiful rose first”. Here is the thing:
sometimes bad things happen,
even to Christians. Why? I don’t
know, but I know we were only
promised a life without pain and
sadness when we join our Father
in heaven one day. In fact, He
promised us:
John 16:32-33 (NKJV)
Indeed the hour is coming, yes,
has now come, that you will be
scattered, each to his own, and
will leave Me alone. And yet I am
not alone, because the Father
is with Me. These things I have
spoken to you, that in Me you
may have peace. In the world
you will have tribulation; but be
of good cheer, I have overcome
the world.”

to them of their future. As a
side note, I find it touching that
He also speaks here into the
human condition of loneliness.
He acknowledges the feeling of
loneliness but recognizes that
He is not alone, because the
Father is with Him in His suffering- as He is with you in your suffering.
We live in a sick, broken, poor,
lonely, selfish, hurting world and
though we are not of this world
(like visitors to a different world),
we are still affected by it. Our
sins and mistakes and those of
our parents and grandparents
and everyone else on the planet
rubbing shoulders with us, still
influence us today.
Yet when Paul speaks to the
Corinthians about their life after
salvation, he says:

it so poignantly:
“There is no bad in God. I truly
believe that the enemy came
to kill, steal and destroy. It is
not God’s will for us to die prematurely. But He can and He
does use everything and every
situation that we surrender into
His hands for His Glory. If I
knew then what I know today – I
would celebrate when someone
dies, and not cry. Because that
person is now safe with their
Abba Father. No more tears.
That is why it is so important
to not love your children, more
than you love God. Don’t make
idols of your children – surrender
them unto Him. Every day has to
be treasured. “Celebrate life –
because life is beautiful”.”

STAGES OF GRIEF
No one person grieves the same
and to try and put a “formula” to
1 Corinthians 15:54-55 (NKJV) it would be ridiculous, but there
“Death is swallowed up in vic- are still certain stages that have
tory.”55 “O Death, where is your been identified in the grieving
sting? O Hades, where is your process that are normal and
victory?”
healthy to go through.
When we have a relationship
with Christ, death is no longer
our greatest fear, but I imagine for the dying Christian it
becomes a glorious crossover
from this angry hurting world,
back “Home” where we belong.

“Grief is a journey, often perilous and without clear direction,”
writes author Molly Fumia. “The
experience of grieving cannot be
ordered or categorized, hurried
or controlled, pushed aside or
ignored indefinitely. It is inevitable as breathing, as change, as
love. It may be postponed, but it
will not be denied.”(1)

And no, we probably won’t have
the answers to “Why” in this life.
But we may already see how
God has used our loved ones’ In 1969, psychiatrist Elisabeth
lives as a testimony.
Kübler-Ross introduced what
became known as the “five
Retah McPherson, a previous stages of grief,” which represent
In this passage, Jesus refers to Mrs. South Africa, whose son the feelings of those who have
His crucifixion but as we know Aldo was in a coma for a long faced death and tragedy:
from the fate of most of the dis- time after their family was in a
ciples, He was also speaking tragic car accident in 2004, puts