How to Walk Bold When Your Path is Hard and the World is Falling Apart Around You

And now the funerals begin. I can’t believe ten kids are dead. 

Again.

Mowed down by a troubled peer. 

Again.

And to think I was all set to blog about the royal wedding… maybe later for that.

Precious souls, snuffed out too soon. They should be looking forward to schools’ end with freedom from homework, late sleeping, annoying their parents and siblings, and eating up every ounce of moonlit nights.

 

They should be chasing fireflies,

Chasing their latest crush,

And chasing hope of a bright future.

 

They should not be lain in the cold ground or resting in a shiny urn on the shelf. 

They should not be spoken of in past tense.

They should not be a whisper in the breeze or a falling star in the ebony night.

 

Grief screams, “A parent should never outlive their children.”

One of the victims was an exchange student from Pakistan. I cannot imagine the sorrow and anger raining from these parents. They sent a beloved daughter to the land of the free. The land of opportunity. Not thinking they were hastening her death. It breaks my heart to know that her host family put together her funeral, her blood kin were not even able to attend.

The whys weigh us down and threaten to overwhelm us. What is happening to our great country? Why is it the norm for angry men and boys to brandish guns to deal with their pain? Is there no end in sight? 

Fear and anxiety creeps in like a thief in the night. Worry takes root. And the downward spiral of dark thoughts cloud our minds. We feel helpless and hopeless as our society becomes more violent by the year.

Our world is falling apart.

And I can’t imagine God’s grief. When his grace is forgotten and his promise of everlasting hope— thrown in the trash. The deceiver wins the moment with lies to the troubled. 

So I turn to the tried and true words that can bring comfort like nothing else. And I squeeze his words tight in my heart.

 I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;

    I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners, 

creating praise on their lips.

Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the Lord. 

“And I will heal them.”

But the wicked are like the tossing sea,

    which cannot rest,

    whose waves cast up mire and mud.

 “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” 

Isaiah 57 18-24

 “I, even I, am he who comforts you.

    Who are you that you fear mere mortals,

    human beings who are but grass,

that you forget the Lord your Maker,

    who stretches out the heavens

    and who lays the foundations of the earth,

that you live in constant terror every day

    because of the wrath of the oppressor,

    who is bent on destruction?

For where is the wrath of the oppressor?

    The cowering prisoners will soon be set free;

they will not die in their dungeon,

    nor will they lack bread.

For I am the Lord your God,

    who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—

    the Lord Almighty is his name.

 I have put my words in your mouth

    and covered you with the shadow of my hand—I who set the heavens in place,

    who laid the foundations of the earth,

    and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

Isaiah 51:12-16

We grieve what is lost. We mourn what is broken inside us and our fellowman.

But we have a power on our side—greater than any foul evil. 

God holds us in his hand and will prevail always and forever. Though life on earth may be hard, and we often hang by a thread, VICTORY IS OURS FOR ETERNITY. 

So grab tight to the Lord’s words of comfort. They give us the strength to move forward through the dim path ahead.

Bold words to slather a healing balm onto our soul.