Who Is In Control of Tragedy?

Who Is In Control of Tragedy?

Last Thursday when I made the drive from Fort Worth to Midlothian it was a beautiful day. After a few days of rain there were actually some blue skies. That quickly changed after lunch when Nathan and I noticed that the clouds were really dark. It wasn’t long after returning from lunch that someone notified us that there was a tornado coming toward the church and we needed to take shelter. Being wise in our old age, our first notion was to go outside and watch the tornado. Even though the tornado was not massive or causing severe damage, apart from movies I have never seen something capable of causing damage that close. I was amazed at how calm and blue the skies were behind the storm but yet there was a wall of about 75% of the sky that was black, it was eerily scary. It was a small storm that could have been disastrous had the tornado touched down a small distance in any direction other than it did.

Two weeks ago one of the first friends that I made when I moved to the Fort Worth area was killed in a car wreck. He had a summer job at Christian summer camp in south Texas and was headed there after a relaxing weekend back home. It was a beautiful day with blue skies so he had taken the top of his Jeep while riding down back roads when for some reason or another he lost control and his jeep flipped and he was killed. There were no dark clouds, no tornados, no signs of any danger in the air, yet His life was taken. It was a beautiful day that could have been a great day but yet tragedy occurred.

Who decides when tragedy will occur? It is obvious that we have no control over whether tragedy will occur when a tornado appears or when we take a drive down a country road on a beautiful day. We are not in charge of what tomorrow will bring, God is. Why then is it that we try to micromanage what tomorrow brings while forgetting where we are and what we are doing today? I know I am guilty of this. Focus on where you are today, and how in this very moment every fiber of your body can scream out “JESUS IS LORD!”.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

James 4:13-14

What Stability Is There Apart From Christ?

What Stability Is There Apart From Christ

Life is chaotic. If you really sit and think about it, our lives are oxymorons many times. We say we want stability or some sense of consistency when the truth is we have no control over anything. In fact the truth is, if life was a board game we don’t even get to make the moves, we’re just dependent upon the one who does. Why is it then we are always battling and fighting for some type of imaginary comfort? Maybe you don’t, but I can so easily fall into the trap of desiring a life that is comfortable, where I have all the steps and processes figured out. When the reality is we can’t plan for anything because we have no idea what the future holds.


I’ve been reminded this week how chaotic life is. If you’ve watched the news maybe you have too. Tornados throughout Mississippi which radically changed lives for many people, an oil spill in the Gulf which will radically change the economy and industry of many people’s lives who were dependent upon the seafood industry, an immigration law in Arizona which has causes riots and protests that are unlike anything I have seen in America in my lifetime, and most recently record flooding throughout the entire Nashville area that has altered and taken away thousands of people’s homes. Just this week all of these events have altered millions of people’s lives in some form or fashion. Do you not think that they had a plan? Do you not think they desired comfort and stability? I’m sure that the devastation of their homes or industries was not included in their plan of comfort and stability.


Isn’t it ironic that we can see daily that we have no control over what tomorrow brings but yet we still try to live like we do? I will admit I am one of the worst people about worrying about what tomorrow holds, especially recently. But what good is it to worry? I have no control over what the future holds one way or the other, and if I really sit and think about it, I’m glad I don’t. It seems every time I try to impose my plan upon my life everything gets worse real quick, but when I become fully reliant and submissive to God’s plan for my life, it turns out perfect. Do you struggle with the desire for comfort and stability? Do not be fooled, comfort and stability are a myth that many people lost this past week. Life is chaotic, the only comfort and consistent stability is God and His Love.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Matthew 6:25-27