Coping with Tragedy

Tonight I taught at the Flood about "Coping With Tragedy" Much of this came as a result of the recent events at L'anse Creuse High School, but also as a life lesson for all students to learn how to deal with sudden tragedy, as it seems to be more needed each year.

You cope with tragedy by expressing your grief
Many times we don't know what to do after experiencing tragedy, but we need to learn how we can express this. Wether it is creating something like a video, song, or poem, or maybe it is writing down your thoughts in a journal, or maybe it is talking with a trusted friend or mentor, we all need to express in different ways. I have seen many of the students expressing grief these last few days through MySpace, which is a great avenue for dialog.

You cope with tragedy be looking for God's Mercy
Sometimes we hear people say things like "This was God's plan" and such. However, I believe this is a horrible thing to say. God doesn't desoire pain for any of us, but we live in a broken world. Instead, God offers His mercy to us when we don't deserve it. He offers to give us Peace and Hope, even when the world offers us tragedy. God desires all to know Him and be in a relationship with Him.

You cope with tragedy be ending the search to Discover Why
We may never know or fully understand God's big picture. Becasue of this we will only cause ourselves further pain by trying to see the silver lining in all our pain. We need to know that God is a bigger than we will ever know and still be able to say, "How Great is Our God." Searching for the why will only result in our own distancing from faith in God.

You cope with tragedy be worshipping God
Just as King David worshipped God immediatly after finding out his son had passed away (2 Samuel) we need to respond to God just like the words of "Blessed Be Your Name"

Blessed Be your name, when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's all as it should be, Blessed Be Your Name.
And Blessed Be your name, on the road marked with suffering, when there's pain in the offering, Blessed Be Your Name.