Job 1:21 – “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
Many, if not all of us experience tragedy at some point in our lives. Someone we love no longer loves us. Healthy, vivacious people get sick and ultimately die. Young people make mistakes and get hurt or killed in the process. I’m sure there are endless examples of such events.
Many times these things get processed incorrectly and end up helping our enemy, the devil to win because someone believed and agreed with the thought that if God really cared, this “thing” would never have happened.
However, God has always allowed tragedy to touch us, but his word says that he will take every circumstance and make it into something good.
How we choose to interpret the event determines whether or not we can see the good that comes. Sometimes we just get angry at God and thus open ourselves to the pain and suffering imposed by the one who kills, steals and destroys for a living.
Recently, a man I’ve known for nearly 20 years passed from this life. This man was a friend and a mentor. He’d experienced an amazing life that ended too soon.
A few years ago he was diagnosed with cancer and the treatment took a lot out of my friend. But his illness was in remission and it seemed he would complete a project he was working on that would have been his life’s “masterwork”.
Unfortunately, his cancer returned and as a result, his spirit could not sustain him.
Where is the good in this? You have to dig deep through the sadness and frustration of his story but God had a plan to make something good from it.
See, this man had a friend – also a dear friend of mine who has had multiple bouts of cancer too, and the lessons he learned have become a book and series of guided lessons on how to lead a fulfilled life even after being treated for cancer.
Very few knew that the two of them were working on and encouraging one another to finish these projects that would be so important to many who suffer physically, mentally, and emotionally long after their cancer has been defeated.
My friend’s passing has given my other friend new strength and another reason to push through to finish his life-changing book and training.
It’s just a fact that in this life God gives and he takes away. It’s all to further his plans for all of his creation and as much as we wish for it, we’re not in on the decisions he’s making. Our place is to trust and believe him at his word when he said that he’d turn every bit of bad news into something good.
If you read, ponder and pray about Job’s story – you’d understand. And even if we don’t want to, our responsibility is to praise the Lord and trust that he’s up to something. And that something will be good
Beautiful tribute to your departed friend.
“What is the lesson here?”
In my “How To Think For A Change” module of a training I conduct, I challenge participants to practice and make automatic every time a painful event or thought that creates a non resourceful emotional state occurs to ask, “What is the lesson here?”,
That question has served me and many of my clients to tap into a resourceful emotional state that strengthens both our resolve to be productive and our trust in a higher power.