Caught by sudden tragedy ...


People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a trap, people are caught by sudden tragedy. -Ecclesiastes 9:12 NLT


Memories flashed through me when I read the words "sudden tragedy". It was in April of 1972 that it happened. I came home from my new job to find my young wife crying. She had been to an optometrist that day. He told her that she had diabetic retinopathy and was going blind. "Sudden tragedy" hit us and all we could do was weep uncontrollably. I was not a praying man and in the following years I did not know how to deal with the pain of this "sudden tragedy".

As I write another "sudden tragedy" comes to mind. In December 2002 my wife Ann and I boarded a cruise ship. Within days Ann found herself paralyzed from the waist down. Stressed to the max I began to pray and heard this response deep within me: "You cannot manage this like one of your work projects. You must learn to flow." That taught me that our response to "sudden tragedy" should be to release control, trust God and learn to flow with life.

Help us today Lord to release control of that which cannot be controlled. Help us to trust you with all of our hearts.


2 comments:

  1. Thanks for that word. I'm dealing with a bit of bleeding in my left eye...getting injections. I lost the central vision in my right eye 12 years ago. Yes, it is one of those things over which I've had no control. Trusting is sometimes hard, but I know it is necessary.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing that Beverly. I pray that the bleeding stops and things get back to "normal".

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