Triumph over Tragedy

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally a song, hymn or selection of poetry to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Vujicic, Nick. Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2013. pp 39-41.

Opening Thought: How does one move from tragedy to triumph? Nick shares the story of another person, who like himself, moved from Tragedy to Triumph; Bethany Hamilton who lost her left arm in a tiger shark attack. She, like Nick, holds a faith in God and now travels and shares her story to encourage people. So again, how does one move from tragedy to triumph? It is not easy, though sometimes I think people believe it is. I remember I had a conversation with lady in college and she told me that she “sometimes wished something bad would happen to her”. When I asked her for clarification, as I thought she was speaking with suicidal tones, she clarified that she had seen so many stories of people having great tragedy put upon them and then rise up stronger because of it, it made her want something bad to happen to her so she could rise up stronger. This train of thought might sound mad, but in a way, I get it. I remember watching movies on war when I was younger and having a weird desire to become a soldier. Not just for the glory of battle, which in movies always seems more exciting and romanticized, but I remember wanting a life circumstance to make me tougher. Some people might call this “first-world problems”. What can I say, it is like we know we are meant for more, but we are not sure how to get there, so when we see people rising from their hardships like the a phoenix rising from the ashes, we too want to be transformed.   

The devotional begins with: 
Psalm 35:17-18

Lord, how long will You look on?
Rescue me from their destructions,
My precious life from the lions.
I will give You thanks in the great assembly;
I will praise You among many people.   

Second Thought: When I was a little kid, whenever the sun would set, I would get a little fear that the sun would not rise the next day. But every time I woke up that sun would be there, ready to greet me. When something tragic happens, we get a very grand version of that feeling, like there will be no light the next day. Sure enough, the sun is there. Same goes for God, people who experience tragedy often strengthen their faith because they realize that even though the sun may have set on some things, like losing an arm, or being born with no limbs, that the sun will rise again to begin a new day of possibilities. The sun is like God, God is like the sun but better, God is always there, God never sets, night and day He is always with us. So, when we feel the lights go out, God is there and when the world robs our light, God will turn the lights back on. God continues to come back for us, bringing our hope and strength all too.  

Continual Work: Just because something bad happens doesn’t mean something good can’t come out of it. This isn’t tragedy per se but one of the largest hurdles in my life is anxiety. When I was a child, I was horribly shy, I remember one time I was assigned a talking role in the school’s year end play and I was to introduce the show. In rehearsals I got so nervous I couldn’t think, it was as if my mind was greyed out with noise. In the end they gave my part to someone else and that rejection due to my struggle put me on a spiral into fear and anxiety. For years I struggled to make a phone calls, let alone speak in front of others. Now, my sister had struggled with anxiety too, but hers was much worse. It crippled her in so many functions of life. Being a few years younger than my sister, this gave me a chance, because I got to witness her struggle with the same anxieties I was bound to come across as I got older, I got to practice working my way through them before they ever hit me. Watching her suffer and learn how to get through it, thought me how to learn to get through it without having to go fully into the experience. Out of both our anxiety hardship, we grew for the better. Now you can find both of us working in ministry pathways and often preaching - who would have thought that would have happened?

The lady I mentioned before, who wished something bad would happen to her, this is the point she missed. Sometimes witnessing or hearing another’s story of triumph over tragedy – is just what you need to learn and become stronger. You can learn from other’s experience. From the Christian perspective, the more I listen to the story of Christ and his disciples - taking the ultimate tragedy of Christ’s story and turning it into the ultimate triumph makes me stronger each day. The wisest people learn not only from their own experience but also from the experiences of others.    

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I want to give thanks this week for the trials and tribulations in my life, the hammer strikes which have hardened this old piece of ore into refined metal – with a few rusty bits I’m sure. Haha!  

Scripture time: John 10:7 

Jesus compares Himself to the gate for the sheep. I preached on this recently and I love this metaphor. Shepherds would bring the sheep into a rock enclosure to protect the sheep. Jesus by saying this means that we must move threw him to find the protection. The hope that Nick speaks of in his entire series so far rings out with this idea of protection, God has called Nick through Jesus to safety. I feel this too, no matter what situation I am in, I feel Christ with me, I try to move through Christ in all the things I do. The more I do this, the happier I feel. This feeling of happiness is completely experiential, I don’t believe anyone could truly appreciate the peaceful calm of this happiness unless they experienced it for themselves. So, what are you waiting for, dive into the faith – walk through the gate and I know you will find it too.

Prayer Time: Creator of the day and the night. Darkness is not the blinding of the eyes but the blinding of the soul. Illuminate my heart so it may have eyes to see. Let me see beyond the whims of society, trends, and pressures of the day – into your will, into your strength, into the gate and threshold which you call me to cross. By Christ name I pray, Amen.   

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Artistic Close:  I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do- Helen Keller