When BAD Things HAPPEN?
There had been an accident. Suddenly, in a squeal of tires and the crunch of a motorcycle helmet, Mitchell was gone. And Momma Mona, a woman of strong faith, was absolutely devastated. Tammy will never forget her friend’s frantic sobs as they gathered around her, desperate to find a way to help. “When will it get better?” Mona kept asking. “Please tell me there will be a time when it doesn’t hurt this much.” So many people—faithful Christians, who love God and trust Him— have been transported against their wills to the place where Mona was traveling. A place that is called Traumaland. Have you experienced one or more of the unexpected, and unwelcome, out of order watershed moments? Events that send us into shock, to wake up one morning and find all life, as we knew it is upside down.
A place where everything looks completely different. A phone call that tilted your world on its axis. News of a disaster; a flood, a fire, a hurricane, could wipe out all that is precious. The truth is, it could happen to any of us. That is one of the painful consequences of living in a fallen world. Trouble may hit with tornado force and then move on, leaving you to sob in the sunshine at the ruin of your “normal” life. It may creep in slowly, insidiously, like a fog or a drought, gradually obscuring the landscape and leaving nothing but exhaustion in its wake. Or a seemingly insignificant incident could unfold into one devastating revelation after another. Any of these experiences is quite sufficient to turn a life upside down in a blink.
Most of them bring other problems with them as well. A death brings shock, grief, confusion, tthen the difficulties of rearranging life just to cope with loss. A divorce brings legal issues, worries about children, grief and anger, perhaps a drastic change in standard of living. A job loss, a chronic illness involves financial strain, fear and worry, the logistics of hospitalization. A house fire may bring cascading experiences of loss as the extent of the damage becomes known—not to mention issues of insurance, living space, rebuilding.
TRAUMA, in other words, CHANGES the very fabric of NORMAL. It also changes the entire dynamic of seeing and being seen by God. Because when bad things happen, “God sees you” can be problematic. Because then you have to face the question of where God is when bad things happen. More specifically, it’s the question of what HE ’s doing—or not doing—to make things better. That’s not a new question, of course. Book after book, sermon after sermon, have been written about the so-called “problem of evil.” I’ve heard quite a few in my day—attempts to explain how evil can persist in the presence of an all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful God. In my experience, these discussions tend to fall into two types.
One discussion is an argument, a theological speculation, an exploration of ideas. The other is a cry of need. While hashing out ideas can be helpful—or unavoidable—it’s that cry of need that matters most to me and in the lives of those I care about. Sometimes, it does come in the form of, “Why has this happened?” In my experience, it’s a plaintive cry of “How.”
How will I ever survive? How will I make it through my doubts? How can I move forward? Will life ever be normal again?” There’s a “When” element, such as in Mona’s question: “When will my life feel normal again?” And in the midst of it all is that cry of Who: “Who is this God Who has asked me to trust Him, Who promises to be with me and care for me and redeem and restore me? Now that all this has happened, how can I trust Him? And where is He anyway? And why isn’t He doing anything to help me. Is God even there?” PRAY the psalms and know He is.
Tammy asked God to reveal Himself, and He did. “The work of God is amazing. What I get to do every day is freaking amazing. The people’s lives that are changed are absolutely crazy in what I get to do.” Take a risk, obey, walk up to somebody that looks a little bit different than you. Maybe they don’t talk like you, maybe they don’t smell like you, maybe they don’t dress like you. They’re not in your neighborhood. They don’t they don’t know your language. I encourage you, step into their world and watch God move. Do you want God to move big in your life? I mean really big? Step into the life of someone that is not like you and listen to their stories.
I promise you, God will move big. Listen and fill a need. Tammy shares a story about a supernatural encounter with a desperate single mother named Carly, emphasizing the importance of stepping into the lives of others and trusting God to move. Tammy invited a volunteer who was door knocking for a candidate. “I just said, what’s your story? And so she went on to tell me her story. Single mom, still with her abusive situation and desperate, living in a bus, desperate to figure out a way, you know, to make life work. As a woman of faith she shared a little bit about her life, and I was just blown away, so blown away. Then she looks down at my table and she says, “Do you sell those drops?” Tammy said, “I do.” Carly desperately replied, “I used to do that, but I couldn’t keep up with it because of my situation. Tammy gave her some drops and Carly started to cry. She told me her story about what they had done for her. Carly’s cortisol has been horrible. What else what else do you need? I gave her a whole bunch of stuff, food for her kids, resources to some of the shelters and ministries that I know around Colorado Springs.
The need is so real, and it’s amazing when we trust God, and we really say, Lord, give me supernatural encounters with you, with people that are desperate. They’re desperate for so many things, but she and her little girl were desperate to come into my house. Before Carly chose the neighborhood, she asked God, where do I go? And HE pointed to your street, and He said, right here. God is so good.
When we choose to listen and hear the hard stories, we become the servant, the light of Jesus, and we offer hope. I asked, and God sent two crazy encounters today! What I know is that when you ask God for signs and wonders of His love for His people, they show up at your door. God takes you up on it. That young woman left today, encouraged. The big, exciting things happen when we join God in His work.
Living Abroad 