How to Respond to Tragedy

Psalm 10:1 ESV

1 Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?

 Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

PSALM 73:3-5 NI

3 For I envied the arrogant

    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 They have no struggles;

    their bodies are healthy and strong.

5 They are free from common human burdens;

    they are not plagued by human ills.

 

PSALM 73:13 NIV

13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure

    and have washed my hands in innocence.

 

JOB 21:7-9 NIV

7 Why do the wicked live on,

    growing old and increasing in power?

8 They see their children established around them,

    their offspring before their eyes.

9 Their homes are safe and free from fear;

    the rod of God is not on them.

 

ECCLESIASTES 8:14 NIV

14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. 

The reason we can’t make sense of evil and suffering and brokenness in the world, is because we were never meant to.

 

GENESIS 2:15 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

 

LUKE 13:1-5 NIV

1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

 

"Don’t settle for simplistic answers to complex problems."

 

LUKE 13:4-5 ESV

4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

 

"Don’t waste your life!"

 

JOHN 9:1-3 ESV

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

 

“She is grateful for her dad's size and his fists, which she has never understood until now. She knows what fists are for now."

-CHARLOTTE MCCONAGHY, Wild Dark Shore