Good morning…
At this time last week, things felt a little safer, a bit more predictable, a tad less confusing. Then a few violent minutes in Nashville, Tennessee stole the life of three innocent children and three caring educators in one little school. An excerpt from an article appearing last Tuesday morning verbalizes our haunting question: “Why?”
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Weeping in Nashville: Where is God when unspeakable acts beget unspeakable sorrow? by SCOTT SAULS, MAR 28, 2023
This time yesterday, parents were dropping their children off at The Covenant School on a bright, sunny Monday morning. No one could fathom what would happen soon after this, when a 28-year old assailant entered the building and opened fire, resulting in the loss of life for three nine-year old children, three adults on staff, and then the shooter as police intervened.
Part of a pastor’s calling is to enter into life’s disorienting, gut-punching, heart-ripping spaces and offer perspective on questions that honestly cannot be answered. This is especially true when the main question being asked is, “Why?”
Why would a good and loving God who is sovereign over every square inch of the universe, who knows the number of hairs on our heads, who said, “Let the little children come to me,” and who promised again and again to be our shield, our protector, and our defender allow for the senseless loss of life for these precious little ones? Why would the same God let faithful, loving, godly educators also be taken away from their families and communities so prematurely? Why would he allow the young survivors and those who took great risk to protect them experience the trauma of being there, of hearing the gunfire, of being rushed frantically to places of safety, and then be marked by the memory for the rest of their precious lives? Why would he not foil and fail the shooter’s plans before a single shot was fired? Why would the One who holds even the hearts of kings in his hands not, by his power of persuasion over the hearts of all humans, redirect the intent of the assailant’s heart as well?
We already know the answer to these questions, which is that we will never know the answer to these questions.
Nashville musician and producer Charles Ashworth, also known as Charlie Peacock, shared great wisdom in his song, “Now is the Time for Tears,” whose lyrics warn us against acting like Job’s friends, who provided foolish and woefully off-the-mark answers to their suffering friend who was, among other things, grieving the loss of all ten of his children, to questions that cannot be answered by finite minds:
“Now is the time for tears. Don’t speak, save your words. There’s nothing you can say to take this pain away. Don’t try so hard…Cry with me, don’t try to fix me, friend. That’s how you’ll comfort me. Heavenly Father, cover this child with mercy. You are my helper through this time of trial and pain. Silence the lips of the people with all of the answers. Gently show them that now is the time, now is the time, now is the time for tears.”
– Charlie Peacock, “Now is the Time for Tears”
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A friend who lost her daughter to a rare brain disease several years back has graciously taught me about the grieving process. She reminded me this week of some of her first steps into the unspeakable pain of losing a child.
“So often people would invite me to lunch,” she recalled. “I would accept but say, ‘I’m not hungry, but what I really need is to just simply watch you breathe because I cannot.'”
Without clear answers, breathing with others through tears of grief is one wordless gift we can graciously give.
Facing the loss of a loved one himself, “Jesus wept,” says John 11:35. Might we quietly do the same?
…Sue…
