A Perspective On Tragedy
“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 - perseverance, character; and character, hope... “(Romans 5:3, 4)).
“It’s obvious to me that you have never experienced any tragedy in your life!” If someone made such a telling statement about you, how would you respond? My first response was to make a mental list in my own defense: twin brother had a brain tumor removed, lost a father to prostate cancer, a foster brother to a heart attack, …thankfully in angry humility I said nothing. I say thankfully because my second response was that this lady may be right.
A hurricane has never taken my home. By God’s grace, to this day I have never been diagnosed with a chronic disease. Never have I been a refugee. None of the horrific tragedies that headline our news these days have I had to endure. But tragedies are tragedies, aren’t they? They seem to defy a rating system. How do you assign greater or lesser points to the death of a child, bankruptcy, or unwanted divorce? And which is worse, losing your hearing or losing your sight, the death of a mother by COVID or the onslaught of Alzheimer’s in a father?
Sooner or later we all get to taste some stew of tragedy. And if you have not experienced any to date, don’t worry, in the words of Joe Louis, “You can run but you can’t hide.” So when you do get hit by tragedy how will you respond? Some are devastated if not destroyed by lesser tragedies and others rise above horrendous difficulties. For the Christ-follower the big question is how would God want me to respond as his child? What is a right perspective toward tragedy?
Well, St. Paul was no stranger to tragedy. He lost friends, had chronic physical problems, and was left to waste away in a prison. He writes from experience then, as guided by the Spirit, when he lays out an astonishingly simple Christian approach to tragedy in really just seven words: faith; peace; grace; perseverance; character; hope; love. We’ll take only two of the seven for a holy attitude toward tragedy but pass slowly through his wisdom:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 - through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 - Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 - perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 - And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:1-5).
1. Faith in a Sure Someone Sets the Foundation.
Ruth Bell Graham tells a story about her son Franklin: Franklin was sleeping on the front porch with his cowboy boots and toy gun. We were having problems with some polecats (southern slang for skunks), and Franklin told me not to worry because he had a gun. “Franklin, it’s just a toy gun,” I said. “That’s OK, Momma,” he said. “The polecats don’t know that.”
Faith is only as good as the object of your faith. Franklin trusted in that which was not trustworthy. Guess who got sprayed? Trust, ultimately, in anything or anyone other than Christ and tragedy inevitably will make you foul. So how does a person have faith in Christ?
First, the gospel is made known to a person - the historical fact that God sent his Son into the world to die for sinners and to rise from the dead triumphant over death and hell for all who believe in him is heard. The Holy Spirit opens the heart to see in this gospel that Christ is trustworthy and more desirable than all human treasures. And so the heart trusts in Christ for all that God promises to be for us in him by the working of the Holy Spirit.
When that faith happens, we are justified before God. In other words, by that faith the Spirit of God unites us to Christ so that his death becomes our death, and his life becomes our life. God laid on him the sins that we were guilty of, and God laid on us the righteousness that he performed. He takes our sin, though he didn’t perform it. And we take his righteousness, though we didn’t perform it. And so by the faith that unites us to Christ we stand before God forgiven for all our sins and righteous with the imputed righteousness of Christ.
On the basis of that great foundation that makes us Christians, faith, Paul says in Romans 5:1 that we have peace with God, undeserving love that is grace, and the ability to glory in our sufferings through perseverance, character, hope, and love - all in Christ. When tragedy strikes then learn to ask, “What will now be my foundation? Who ultimately will I trust in now?” Then answer with Paul, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith … (Romans 5:1).
2. Perseverance Helps See You Through to the End.
Getting antsy during a day-long church seminar a layman leaned over to the man seated next to him and whispered, “Are you going to stay to the bitter end?” To which Prof. Eugene Ewald replied, smiling, “I am the bitter end!”
If God-given faith is the foundation perseverance will help you endure to the end any tragedy. Perseverance is “hanging in there.” It is refusing to give up on God when things happen that we would never choose to happen. It is remaining faithful by faith. Isn’t one of the more common responses to tragedy by us giving up too soon?
Perseverance is giving God time to help us and heal us - teach us what we desperately need to know. This is a lot more than wishful thinking. Christian perseverance is possible only because of faith, peace, and grace. We trust Jesus. After all, he has proven trustworthy. Jesus settles our hearts and gives us whatever resources we need in order to hang in there to the bitter end.
Recently I was reminded about a little girl who experienced a major breakthrough in her life. She learned to tie her own shoes. Instead of excitement, she was overcome by tears. Her father asked, “Why are you crying?” “I have to tie my shoes,” she said. “You just learned how. It isn't that hard, is it?” “I know,” she wailed, “but I’m going to have to do it for the rest of my life.”
Tragedy, like tying your shoes, is something we have to do our entire life. That brings us back to our question, “What is a right perspective toward tragedy?” Let it be a Romans 5:1-5 attitude. Let it be a perspective that is shaped by these seven words: faith, peace; grace; perseverance; character; hope; and love.