How do we handle the gap of tragedy?

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

   Today we're gonna talk about how we might live through tragedy. And the reason we need to talk about this is that tragedy shows up for all of us. None of us avoid it. And if we want to have a coherent picture of the good life, then that life has to withstand living through tragedy since it's true for each of us that we will have loved ones who die, we will.

Some of us will travel through divorce, we will lose relationships. We will get a health diagnosis that changes our lives forever. And tragedy is not something that God loves, but it is something that God is able to engage and overcome.

In 1 Peter 1, Peter gives us three clues that I think helps us live through tragedy to live the good life, even in the midst of tragedy, he tells us that we are to connect to living hope.

He encourages us that our faith. Is what will empower us and that we should feel a sense of freedom in our faith, and that lastly, we should open ourselves to indescribable joy. As Peter is describing this hope we have, he talks about it how it is a living hope, because it's through the resurrection of Christ and so that hope is alive.

Think of it between as living water versus still or dead water. Living water, you can imagine a spring that is continually flowing, the most delicious, most pure water you've ever tasted. Dead water would be sort of what it looks like in May when that pool gets opened that's been closed for the winter and there's leaves and mold and maybe a few dead squirrel floating in there, that's the dead water.

And so as we travel through tragedy, what we want to do is we want to connect to living Hope, not that dead hope, because the living hope is that of Christ's Resurrection.

So what does that exactly mean? Well, what it means is that just as we see in the cross in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, God brings new life even where there is death, and that's what happens in the midst of tragedy.

In the midst of tragedy, when we lose a loved one, we feel like there is no life, and yet what God does is God brings life where we feel like there is none. I think back to my time as I traveled through divorce and there were many days in which it felt like there was no new life. And yet as I engaged, as I saw the world, as I relied on friends, there was new hope that came and sprung up.

And so whatever tragedy you have traveled through, there is new hope. There is new life that is promised on the other side. And so we wanna look for that.

The second thing that Peter sketches out is the importance of faith. That it's our faith that protects us. You and I put our faith in all kinds of things.

Earlier this week, I went to the opening of a new building. And as I entered, I'm really putting my faith in the reality that this building was built in such a way that I could rely on it being safe and secure. Now, I can do that for a few different reasons. One, I can do it because I know the builder. Two the people who are inviting it to me or people I know, and so I would expect that they would be safe.

Plus, we have things like building codes and architects and engineers. Whose whole livelihood is to make safe buildings, and so I put my trust, my faith in that. Peter is telling us that we want to put our faith in God who has set aside an imperishable, an undefinable future reality of salvation and resurrection.

Paul says it a different way. He talks about how there's nothing that can separate us from God's love. So as we travel through tragedy, we wanna lean into our faith. And one of the things that allows us to do is it allows us to reel and wail and rage in the midst of tragedy. When it shows up, that is how we feel.

I can remember when my grandfather died and the call that my mom got, my grandfather was my hero, and to hear this horrible news that he had this sudden heart attack and was no longer with us, it was heartbreaking and so wailing and reeling and raging was what was right.

We see throughout the scriptures that people's faith allow them this wailing, reeling, and raging. Whether it's in the Psalms or Jesus himself on the cross when he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Our faith not only permits, but requires us to be people who are willing to reel and rage and flail around, and that doesn't do anything to hurt our faith or hurt our standing with God because that is imperishable.

And what that allows for us is as we travel through that tragedy to engage our faith. And so one of my questions to you is how do you help yourself continue to connect to that faith? And I think that it can show up in a couple different ways. I think certainly things like prayer and reading are helpful.

I think relying on others and trusting in their faith can be helpful. I think too, remembering where God has brought us through can be helpful, but whatever it is that you're traveling through right now, connect to that faith that is going to power you and frees you as a person to engage those hard and difficult emotions. God's not afraid of him. We love and serve a God that brings life out of death.

Finally, what Peter talks about is he talks about how we rejoice in this indescribable joy, and that's the amazing thing, is that even in the midst of brokenness of life, even in the midst of tragedy, joy still shows up. And so we wanna look for that. We wanna look for and be open to indescribable joy. You know, when we have a celebration of life or a funeral for someone, you can see where they are both together. There's the tragedy and the brokenness and the sadness, but there's also the joy. The joy that we tell in stories. The joy of laughter, the joy of remembering that person, the joy of being grateful that they were in our lives.

And so when we put those things together, we. Are reminded that even in the midst of a broken world, that there's a future coming, a future reality in which death and evil and sin are wiped out, and that indescribable joy overcomes and wins, and that joy still shows up in our lives. And so we have to open ourselves to be able to see it.

Now for some of us, that can be just engaging in life. It can be being with friends, it can be going for a walk. Can be listening to music and that will help you. For some of us, as we go through different tragedy in our life, it actually might require counseling or medicine to help us through and to reawaken our ability to see the indescribable joy that continues to show up in our life because our God is a living God.

Jesus is not the king of death. Jesus is the king of resurrection. And so that resurrection continues to meet us in our life. And so in order to have a good life, we have to know how to walk through tragedy. And the way that we can do that is by connecting to a living hope, by allowing ourselves to be empowered by faith and to keeping ourselves open to that indescribable joy.

I hope this was helpful for you. Look forward to seeing you again soon. Take care.