This is what Senior Pastor Del Traffanstedt told his congregation Sunday morning after a shooter killed seven people and injured twenty-two in his community. His church is within sight of the movie theater where the violent chase ended.
Then the pastor added: “The reality is, things like this happen all over planet Earth all the time.”
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The apparent randomness of the attack in West Texas underscores the threat it represents. It seems that anyone, anywhere, can be a victim of violence.
You and I can neither predict nor control the future, but we can control how we respond to its unpredictability. Our response, in turn, plays a pivotal role in our personal future.
How can we become more optimistic? A clinical health psychologist explained that she works with patients to “uncover systems of beliefs and assumptions people are making about themselves in their lives” so they can “begin to change those.”
When we begin making optimistic assumptions, our attitudes toward our experiences become more positive, our stress levels respond, and our physical health can improve as well. In other words, when we choose to view life positively, life often responds in kind.
The key to relational truth
This psychological principle also holds true spiritually.
When tragedy strikes, it’s human nature to cry with Christ from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). We want God to explain his ways so we can decide whether or not to trust him with our pain.
But what if we cannot experience his help until we trust his heart?
Relational truth must be chosen to be experienced. You cannot prove you should get married until you get married. You cannot prove you’ll recover from surgery until you trust the surgeon.
You should examine the evidence, but then you must step beyond the evidence into a relationship that becomes self-validating.
“Thy sea is so great and my boat is so small”
So it is with God. He wants us to develop and use our intellectual capacities as fully as possible (cf. 2 Peter 1:5; Matthew 22:37). But when it comes to understanding the mind of God, he tells us, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8). Our finite, fallen minds may not be able to comprehend his perfect will until we are with him in heaven (1 Corinthians 13:12).
And as long as we hold our Father at arm’s length while we wait for explanations that may not help us, we forfeit the mercy that will.
President John F. Kennedy kept on his desk a block of wood inscribed with the words, “O God, Thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.” They were adapted from this poem by Winfred Ernest Garrison:
Thy sea, O God, so great, My boat so small. It cannot be that any happy fate Will me befall Save as Thy goodness opens paths for me Through the consuming vastness of the sea.
Thy winds, O God, so strong, So slight my sail. How could I curb and bit them on the long And saltry trail, Unless Thy love were mightier than the wrath Of all the tempests that beset my path?
Thy world, O God, so fierce, And I so frail. Yet, though its arrows threaten oft to pierce My fragile mail, Cities of refuge rise where dangers cease, Sweet silences abound, and all is peace.
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries” (Mark 7:21).
“The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
“Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
While the verses above, and many more like them, explain man’s evil acts against one another, at least to those who belong to God’s family, this does not relieve the grief and trauma of violent acts. West Texas, specifically Odessa and Midland, have been the recent victims of one man’s rampant rage ending in death, injury and the terror of many.
Stopping the wrongdoer, as necessary as that is, never puts things back in proper order as they were. The loss of life and the anger, grief and anguish it causes is indescribably unbearable. But then there is the ongoing terror and distrust that lingers. God help the children; God help us all . . . Compassionate American patriots want to help our sorrowing brothers and sisters, our friends and neighbors. So we reach out in any act of love and kindness we can muster. Dear friends, the very best we have to offer are our many prayers for them to our loving heavenly Father. America prays . . .
Father, our Loving God, You alone are the Author, Designer, Creator and Sustainer of our lives; You know the torment of the grief-stricken, You are paying special attention to the prayers of the brokenhearted. Hear Your children who cry out to You in their confusion and need; reinforce their hope in Your eternal and righteous goodness.
Today we pray for the families and friends of those who have died because of violent of acts of terror. Be near to all who have been affected by this violence: those who have been injured or hurt, who have lost loved ones or their feelings of security. May they experience Your eternal Peace and Joy.
Precious LORD, be their constant comfort and safe place of rest.
For America, may hate be exchanged with love, violence with peace and darkness with Your Light. May we experience a great outpouring of Your Spirit upon all men, In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
