When it comes to experiencing tragedy on a personal level, I am in kindergarten.
By Kelly Boggs
Editor
When it comes to experiencing tragedy on a personal level, I am in kindergarten.
Through almost 20 years together, my wife and I have
both experienced relatively good health. As I write this, all of
my children are “clothed and in their right minds.” Keep in mind that
two of my four kids are teenagers, so the previous sentence could
change before I put the final period on this column.
I have not had to bury a parent, sibling, or any in-laws. I have experienced no major losses in my life.
As a pastor, whenever I was called on to minister in
time of devastation or sorrow, I was keenly aware of my tenderfoot
status on the trail of tragedy. After only a month in Louisiana, I am
reminded anew that I am but a novice when it comes to acute adversity.
Rarely a day has gone by that I have not been
confronted with the tragedy wrought by the twin terrors, Katrina and
Rita. When I talk to a pastor in South Louisiana or read about a church
in New Orleans, my response is always the same – stunned silence.
Each time that I encounter the scars left by the
storms, I am reminded that I have no answers. However, I can pray to
the One who does.
Before I ever knew that my family and I would be
moving to the Pelican State, I read a book that has helped me to
contemplate the reality now facing many of my brothers and sisters
seeking to recover and rebuild in South Louisiana.
In the book, Shattered Dreams, Larry Crabb writes,
“Our shattered dreams are never random. They are always a piece in a
larger puzzle, a chapter in a larger story. He adds, “Pain is a
tragedy. But it’s never only a tragedy. For the Christian, it’s always
a necessary mile on the long journey to joy.”
Drawing from the Old Testament book of Ruth, Crabb
shows how God allowed Naomi to be stripped of happiness – the loss of
her husband and two sons – in order to prepare her for profound joy.
From Naomi’s story, Crabb draws several lessons that
are intended to encourage Christians who have been blindsided by
tragedy. I offer a few of them as food for thought.
One lesson is that our fondest dreams for this life,
the ones we naturally believe are essential to our happiness,
must be fully abandoned if we are to know God intimately. Shattered
dreams are necessary for spiritual growth.
Another lesson is that shattered dreams produce
excruciating pain, sometimes so extreme that we fear we cannot
survive. The pain is not evidence of weak faith. It is evidence
we are normal.
One other lesson Crabb highlights is that shattered
dreams are inevitable. Some cherished dream will crumble in your
life. No one makes it unscathed to the end.
Crabb’s motive for writing Shattered Dreams was
rooted in a bout with cancer. Unlike me, he has traversed the
twisted trail of tragedy.
His gleanings from the Old Testament book of Ruth
are not pat answers or feel good cliches. He doesn’t promise “your best
life now.”
Rather, Crabb offers manna to help those struggling with tragedy make it through another day.
Shattered Dreams even helps those who have never
experienced significant adversity empathize with those who have. And
that is helpful when it comes to praying, something we should all
be doing for our brothers and sisters in South Louisiana.