Road Warriors: Jeremiah—A Message of Survival - Tuesday
Lamentations 3:22-23
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (NIV)
Often after a great tragedy, the first question people ask is Why? When we feel pain and suffering, we grasp for something to make sense of it because it disorients us. We claw at answers, seeking to understand what went wrong, or why something happened, or why it happened to ME. And sometimes, there are answers we can point to. Sometimes, the reason for suffering and pain is clearly Satan at work in the world. Sometimes, it’s due to our own broken nature and willful, sinful choices (as was often the case in Israel’s history, which Jeremiah spoke to) or the fallenness of the created order as a whole.
But sometimes, suffering remains unexplainable.
A little over a year ago, I got a phone call. The kind that takes the wind out of your lungs and knocks you to the ground. And every moment that followed afterward held waves of disbelief followed by the kind of wordless grief that makes your spirit groan.
One of my best and closest friends, someone who knew everything about me, had been killed in a terrible car accident. The grief of her death was extraordinarily painful because her life was extraordinarily wonderful. She was bright, beautiful, passionate, and kind. She and her husband were only days away from preparing to move to Japan to be missionaries and share the gospel in a city where almost no one knows the name of Jesus.
I cried out to God in anger and fresh, sharp grief. Why? Why her? Why now? Why did this happen? Why didn’t you intervene miraculously, God?
And do you know what? I still don’t have answers to those questions. I do not understand her death, and it makes no sense to me. This side of heaven may offer me no answers about her death, but God’s Word does offer truth in the midst of it. Even in some of the prophet Jeremiah’s most vivid laments, he recognizes the truth about who God is. He grieves, but he is not swallowed up or consumed by it altogether. Why? See the verse above. Because of the Lord’s great love and compassion, which reorients us to hope.
Tuesday’s Reflection
This famous hymn draws its lyrics from our verse of the day. Listen to it today, and be reminded of who God is and how His faithfulness and compassion remain steady, even when our pain knocks us down.
