Our Response to Tragedy

      

Our RESPONSE when faced with unthinkable tragedy is PIVOTAL.  It will determine what happens next.   Everyone responds differently.  For some of us it will propel us into fear and we stop moving, stop doing, cower in a dark corner and cease to exist.  Still others......fight back.  
      When my husband passed away I remember vividly my phone call from my pastor.  Within moments of learning the news, he called.  Very assuredly and very calmly and confidently he said, "Here's what we're gonna do."  He laid out for me a strategy.  A plan of attack.  How I was going to respond to this tragic moment.  I was to take my children and go to the Word.  Before anything else.  Before any decisions were made.  Before panic took over.  I was to go to the Word and read it till I couldn't read it any more.  I could barely read the words through my tears and they were only a whisper....but still I read and I kept reading .... Truth.  When the enemy was throwing a barrage of lies and doubt, fear and panic .....I was reading Truth.  

      The next morning and the morning after that and the
 days to follow my pastor would give me the next step....and the next.  With each word a new directive....laced with HOPE and TRUTH.  

     This is CRUCIAL in your darkest moments.  It's okay to grieve. I'm not saying there is no time for grief.  But if you don't take the time to map out a strategy.  If you have no plan.....the darkness will overcome you......we need that time to process and heal but we cannot stay there.  
                                   Because this IS war.
The enemy strategizing and scheming against you.  His plan of attack?  To rob you of HOPE, FAITH and TRUTH.  To attack your future and the WORD that's already in you.  One of his greatest tactics is fear.  Getting you to doubt the Truth you know.

  On the battle field the most successful soldiers have a strategy mapped out.  If unprepared the battle will quickly overcome him.  There's no time for panic.  Your best strategy against attack is the Word.  Fight fire with fire and let the peace of God rule and reign.  
And then surround yourselves with those who will fight WITH you.  People of FAITH.  Surround yourself with those who SPEAK the TRUTH and WALK in the TRUTH. THOSE are the people who will bring you BACK to the TRUTH in your darkest moments.
We were never meant to do life alone.

The light shines on in the darkness and the darkness CANNOT overcome it. John 1:5