As the nation deals with yesterday’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, the long process of grieving begins. I appreciate stories from antiquity that tell of allowing long periods of mourning – a month or so – in recognition that grief isn’t something that we turn on and then turn off like a switch mere days later. You probably feel a little bit different today than you did yesterday, and different today than you will tomorrow, but you and I will be impacted for a long while to come.
Part of the process that helps me deal with such tragedy is to dig deeper into the subject through the writings of trusted sources. To that end, I have read a number of articles written on the subject in the past 24 hours by Christian leaders more experienced and wiser than me. I started accumulating them and posting them as comments to yesterday’s lesson and will continue to add others there as I find them. For the sake of convenience and to reinforce the point of today’s lesson, I offer them in the list below as well.
1. Billy Graham: “Suffering: Why Does God Allow it?”
2. Russell Moore: “School Shootings and Spiritual Warfare”
3. David Platt: “The Gospel and Newtown”
4. John Piper: “How Does Jesus Comes to Newtown?”
5. John Piper: “A Lesson For All From Newtown”
6. John Piper: “How Shall We Minister to People After the World Trade Tower Terrorism of September 11, 2001?”
7. Al Mohler: “Rachel Weeping for Her Children — The Massacre in Connecticut”
8. Douglas Wilson: “And Slew the Little Childer”
There is much that goes through our thoughts and emotions in times like these. It helps not to travel that path alone. Discuss it with others. Bare your soul to God. Seek and glean the wisdom of others to help bring clarity of thought and to try to make sense out of the senseless.
Leap year lesson #349 is Dig deeper for understanding.
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