You’ve got your neighbor lined up to get your mail and your newspaper. You bought an automatic fish feeder and you set up an auto-responder for your email that says, “I’ll be out of the office for the next ten days. If you need immediate assistance, contact someone else!” You’ve been counting down the days, and it’s finally here: vacation.
You’ve got plans for those long, wonderfully work-free days; Plans that include not looking at your watch, not checking your email and definitely not stressing over anything more taxing than what to have for dessert. Vacation can be a welcome respite after weeks (and months) of work.
The great thing about a vacation is that everyone knows you’re off limits. You aren’t expected to respond to calls, and no one will look for you at the weekly staff meeting. Emails and calls go un-returned.
Have you ever prayed repeatedly about a topic, only to have God respond with ….SILENCE? He hasn’t returned any of your calls for help, He seems to have turned off His prayer notification system and nothing seems to be getting done. When tragedy strikes and there doesn’t seem to be any reason why…where is God? It can sometimes feel as though your cries for relief and deliverance go unanswered and unnoticed. Is God simply too busy to pay attention? Has He abandoned you in your time of need? Is He on vacation?
In the book of Habakkuk, the land of Judah was a mess. God’s people had turned their backs on Him, the nation was in a period of moral decline and Habakkuk turned to God for answers. He wanted to know why God hadn’t done anything …why He hadn’t answered the cry for help.
Habakkuk cries out to God, saying, “O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save. Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds. (Habakkuk 1:2-4 NKJV)
God responds to Habakkuk, telling him, “Look among the nations and watch-Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you.” (Habakkuk 1:5 NKJV) He then went on to tell Habakkuk of the trials Judah would soon face, things so terrible Habakkuk was aghast. But something startling happened in Judah as a result of the tragedies: the people turned to God. Lamentations 3:40-41 shows the response of Judah after they have suffered, “Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the LORD; Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven.”
Tragedies have a way of turning people’s hearts back to God.
Jesus Himself told His followers in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” God knew we would have suffering. He told us to expect it.
We can’t claim to know why things happen…but we do know that God does, and we can be confident that He is present – even in the midst of our suffering. God is not indifferent to your suffering, nor does He turn a deaf ear to your cries. His response has been the same throughout history: Jesus. The solution to “How …?” or “Why …?” was given when God took a tragedy and turned it into triumph. By all outward appearances, the death of an innocent man by his enemies was a tragedy. God, however, had greater plans and that ‘tragedy’ became the triumph of Good Friday. Why ‘Good’? Because through the tragedy, God provided salvation to man. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection provided man with the way to God. Through Jesus, the solution to tragedy has already been given.
Instead of being removed from the suffering of man, Jesus became man and suffered so He could identify with us in our pain. Jesus was broken, despised and rejected of men, betrayed by a friend, and acquainted with grief. He did all of that to provide a way out of the greater tragedy of an eternity without God.
Tragedies remind us of our need for a Savior.
When you turn to God, you find peace to deal with the present, courage to face the future and the promise of eternal life. Place your trust in the one the Psalmist declares, “Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:4 NKJV) God doesn’t go on vacation. He is always ready to meet us in our hour of need.
