Tragedy and Faith

Trouble tests faith.

It exposes false props in our lives that were not true, props that we need to let go of. It moves us to hear the truth again with new ears that pain has discovered. We find, not all the answers that we desire, but the answers that we need.

I have been open in talking with others about the death of my son. But I have talked to God more about that loss than to anyone else. You might think that talking to God would be a very one-sided conversation. Because of the truth of the Word, the life of faith is not only my speaking to God, but His speech to me.

In fact, at the time of my worst loss, God started the conversation. He was speaking to me in my reading of His word at the moment that my phone rang:

Job 37:5
"God thunders wondrously with his voice:
He does great things that we cannot comprehend."

I have had to listen to God's voice in Job 37:5 on many occasions since that first moment, and I take in that answer, in light of all the speech of God in His Word, and all the truth of the system of theology that comes from that Word. I have had to hold on to that verse like a jewel, and consider it in light of tragedy. This is what faith does, regardless of the exact verse that someone is reading at one point or another. The striking fact of timing in my case I simply take as a special mercy to me. The truth that the verse contains is the same all the time.

Here is another answer I have received from God:

Psalm 116:15
"Precious in the Lord's sight
is the death of His saints."

That does not answer every question I might come up with, but it does move my heart in directions that are healthy.

Sometimes the voice of God is not simply in one specific verse, but in the whole system of truth that comes from many verses throughout the whole of the Scripture. Soon after my son's death I spent six months reading the Bible looking for God's direction concerning life beyond this life. That study was extremely fruitful for my soul, and I continue to consider the fullness of the meaning of God's Voice concerning heaven and the resurrection.

This is the way faith is tested and proved in tragedy. Solid truths already known are more fully rested upon. New truths are discovered and become a part of what faith holds dear. False props are found out and discarded. Maybe more than once, even for the same foolish substitutes. And faith grows, and with this comes the possibility that hope will grow as well...

But what is hope?

Tomorrow...