“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4, NASB)
This past week our Georgia community has been overwhelmed by a tragic event that has gained national headlines. The director of golf of Pinetree Country Club, the very club where my father learned to play and honed his game in the 1970s, was shot and killed by a stranger.
Gene Siller, a husband and father of two young boys, who, as a member of Pinetree told me days later, was “one of the nicest and kindest people he ever knew,” got news that a truck had crashed up by the tenth green. Mr. Siller, doing his job and being his kind self, immediately got in a golf cart and drove up to check on the situation and offer his assistance. He was shot in the head. Members and staff called 911 after hearing gunfire. When the police arrived, they found in addition to Mr. Siller two other deceased male bodies in the bed of the pickup truck.
How do we make sense of such a tragedy? Yes, a golf club lost its beloved pro, but a wife also lost her hardworking husband, and two young boys lost their hero.
It is easy for events like this to stir in us questions toward God, like: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” “Why would God allow something like this to happen?” or “Why didn’t God intervene?”
Why questions can be detrimental to our faith because we are ultimately questioning the sovereignty of God. I used to ask a lot of Why questions until I learned a better one: What?
“God, what are you up to in the midst of this circumstance, and what is my role?”
Jesus has provided an answer that gives us a glorious hope no matter what the tragedy.
When we choose to follow Jesus, we need to give up the Why questions, because we are choosing to give up our lives for the furthering of God’s kingdom that has purpose and a plan. Nothing is meaningless, “and we know that God causes all things [even tragedies] to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
“But why this?” we ask. “How can this possibly be good?”
The answer: It is not good! There is nothing good about this situation; however, God put his Son on earth to turn bad into good long-term, and he gave the body of Christ instructions as to how to be his hands and feet in heartbreaking situations. “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27).
We live in a fallen and sinful world. That has been made known through Scripture since the earliest chapters of Genesis, but do not be disheartened, God has had a plan in place since the beginning—his Son, Jesus. He gave up his divine privileges to come in the form of man, overcoming sin and death for us so that we don’t have to wallow in our hopelessness of pain, tragedy, or death. Jesus has provided an answer that gives us a glorious hope no matter what the tragedy. He has offered us life after death.
As we see in today’s verse, mourning is a part of this life, but God promises to comfort us. Through Jesus, there is a plan. We no longer need to ask Why questions of God; rather, we can move into the role of ambassadors in his kingdom, co-heirs of Christ, and just start asking God what role he wants us to play in the lives of others in tragic times.
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Josh Nelson
July 13, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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