God’s style often baffles me: God moves at a slow pace, prefers rebels and prodigals, restrains power, and speaks in whispers and silence. Yet even in these qualities I see evidence of God’s longsuffering, mercy, and desire to woo rather than compel. When in doubt, I focus on Jesus, the most unfiltered revelation of God’s own self. I learn to trust God, and when some tragedy or evil occurs that I cannot synthesize with the God I have come to know and love, then I look to other explanations.
Tragedy
Elisabeth Elliot
When things happen which dismay we ought to look to God for His meaning, and remember that He is not taken by surprise nor can His purposes be thwarted in the end.
Katherine Walden
The mettle of a person comes to the surface in times of stress and turmoil. You don’t develop a strong character and moral compass as a result of a tragedy. These need to be developed, long before a crisis ever hits so you can keep your integrity, compassion and respect flowing during the long road of recovery that follows an immediate crisis. Sometimes, a crisis causes character traits that lay dormant to rise to the surface, and you find the inner determination to press on, much to your own surprise! Compassion, forgiveness, patience, tolerance, endurance, humility, generosity -these are the true go-to tools of recovery.