When Bad Things Happen on Friday

In the internet age, thousands of miles no longer insulates missionaries like us from the news coming out of the States. Along with most of you, we watched the news channels on Friday evening, listening to the horrific details coming out of Connecticut. There are no words... and sometimes no words are the best words we have to share.

 Still, when I saw the following posted on a life-long friend's Facebook page, it kept me thinking of words during the night: "How am I supposed to believe in God, let alone His kid, when so many innocents are slaughtered?...I ache so much for the families of the victims and no shaman or holy man will ever be able to assuage their pain. Or my anger."

Truth be told, I understand his response. Christians often sound glib when responding to terrible, cataclysmic events. In response to honest questions and profound pain, it can be too easy for us to grab for theological catch-phrases which we believe will bring reason into this unreasonable world. Still, if any group of people can understand the bewilderment caused by bad things happening on a Friday, it should be us.

So... how do we respond to Friday tragedies in light of the truth we have experienced?

We grieve. We grieve openly and we grieve profoundly. We grieve for lives that will never be lived and we grieve that others will have to somehow live without their children, grandchildren and friends. This is a grief that will not be momentary. One of my dear friends still grieves the loss of his almost-seven year-old son over twenty years ago. My guess is that Jack will grieve his loss until he sees Johnny again.

In a time when many Christians were suffering because of their faith, Paul wrote to the Romans, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." (Romans 12:15 ESV) With a few words, Paul reminded the believers that Jesus wept facing the cruel reality of death and we should as well. Our tendency is to be jealous when others rejoice, and to pass by when they mourn. God's way is to participate in the joys and sorrows of those around us.

Still, we do not "grieve like other people who have no hope." (1Thes. 4:13) As terrible as Friday may be, we also believe in the reality of Sunday. Like the old sermon says - on Friday "Jesus is praying. Peter is a sleeping. Judas is betraying. But Sunday's coming." It is that reality of Sunday that keeps us going when bad things happen on Friday.

My friend is right on a very critical point. No holy man or shaman can ever take away the parents' pain in Connecticut or West Virginia or Columbine or Aurora or in New York City after 9/11. No one can wave a wand and make the pain disappear for a parent who loses a child to disease or in a senseless traffic accident or to a tragic suicide.

However, there is a God who weeps - and He is the same God who "because He suffered so much for us, we can receive so much comfort from him." (2 Cor. 1:5)