Week 38 - When Tragedy Strikes

“The Lord gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” (Job 1:21b)

It was a joyous and proud day for the Singapore sports fraternity on 19 November 2007. That was the day the International Olympic Committee announced that Singapore, together with four cities, had been shortlisted to host the 2010 Youth Olympic Games. However, on Friday of the same week, the joy and jubilation of our nation turned into sadness and sorrow. On that day, five Singaporeans lost their lives in the freak post-Dragon Boat race accident at the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

We make passing comments whenever we read about tragic events in the newspaper, or hear about and watch them on television. It is easy to do that so long as tragedy does not affect us personally. However, when tragedy strikes us personally, it breaks us because we see it face to face and feel the hurt and sorrow deep in our hearts. No words can express our feelings and we are then made to realise that tragedy is, in fact, tragic because it is personal. There is no such thing as impersonal tragedy. Every tragedy hurts someone, if not a family or a community.

Our lives on earth can be cruelly cut short by an unpredictable disaster. We felt powerless in spite of our mastery of technology. We realise that we are not in ultimate control of our future. We feel cheated by death. We cry for the victims, and perhaps also for ourselves. We are mocked by a muddy river that refuses to answer our urgent questions.

Personal Experience

No matter how much investigation is put in to find the answers to a tragedy, the investigators can only manage to answer the question “how” when explaining the tragedy. Who can answer the question “why”? The human soul still longs for meaning in tragedy.

When tragedy strikes, we experience meaninglessness and loneliness. We desperately search for meaning and love. However, any of us who has suffered personal tragedy knows that the comfort and condolence extended to us by friends cannot completely remove our pain and anguish.

No Exemption

Christians are not exempted from tragedy. We swim in tragic seas. However, we have Christ. When tragedy strikes, we find meaning and love in our risen Lord. We believe that there is a purpose in our tragedies, a purpose that will be revealed when Jesus comes again and wipes away every tear (Revelation 21:4 ). In Christ, we also have God’s presence that holds us by the hand and leads us through tragedy into triumph and into glory, onto shores where the tragic waves that carry our lives will finally be calmed and defeated.

We are familiar with the account of how in one day, a tycoon lost everything. A freak lightning strike, followed by two bandit attacks, took everything he owned. The same day, this respected, God-fearing man received word that a typhoon had caused a house to collapse, killing all of his children. While mourning his loss, he contracted a skin disease resulting in having painful sores all over his body. These events recorded in Job read like the news from today’s papers. The words still ring true: “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7 ).

Some tragic events are caused by the schemes of wicked people; others seem to happen without rhyme or reason. Nevertheless, the loss is deep and real, regardless of the cause.

How then should we respond when tragedy strikes? As Christians, we must remember that Christ had suffered in every way like us and had “learned obedience from what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:7-9 ). His death on the cross assures us of God’s constant love. Therefore when we come face to face with a tragedy, we need only to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2 ).

Prepare to Meet the Lord

Is there anything we can do to better prepare ourselves for a tragedy? Such tragedy tends to strike without any warning. The best way to prepare for a tragedy, I believe, is to “prepare to meet your God” (Amos 4:12 ). During Amos’ time, the people of Israel were in danger of a nation-wide tragedy. The prophet Amos’ advice to them was to be prepared to meet their Creator.

Are we prepared to meet our Creator?