I hope I'm going to suddenly wake up and realise that the traumatic events of the last few weeks and months have been nothing but a bad nightmare. Sadly, that is not going to happen. The Westminster Bridge attack, Manchester Arena attack, London Bridge and Borough Market attack, the Grenfell Tower fire and now the attack at Finsbury Mosque resulted in a devastating, needless and tragic loss of life. It's impossible to digest.
In the midst of witnessing such heartbreak, there are many big questions being asked. When will these tragedies end? How are terrorists being radicalised? Why is there so much hatred in the world? Where is justice for the families? And where is God in the midst of all this pain and suffering?
Our world is clearly not as God intended it to be, or as we would like it to be. There is so much that we and others have broken, fractured and spoilt. At times, the pain, suffering and loss is simply unbearable.
Released in cinemas last week was a film called The Shack, directed by Stuart Hazeldine. It tells the story of a father whose daughter is abducted and murdered – a situation I feel nauseous even thinking about. The father wrestles with God saying, 'You're the almighty God right? You know everything. You're everywhere all at once. You have limitless power. Yet somehow you let my little girl die when she needed you most. You abandoned her.'
In recent weeks far too many people have been left wrestling with similar anguish and pain, many wondering if God has simple abandoned them. As the father in The Shack cries out, God reassures him by saying, 'I never left her.' In the midst of her suffering, God was there.
God always chooses to sit with, to struggle alongside and take up the cause of those who feel alone, abandoned or are facing injustice. Psalm 23 beautifully expresses God's presence with us in the dark times: 'The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, a I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4).'
God is no stranger to suffering; his own son Jesus Christ was subjected to the heart wrenching injustice of a rigged trial and the most torturous and barbaric death by crucifixion. He was nailed through his hands and feet to a wooden cross and left to hang there until he died. God knows all there is to know about pain, even the very deepest agony of losing a child.
The pain may be too much to bear and the answers we are longing for may never come, but God is with us through it all. God identifies with us, he cries with and he offers us hope for a better future. Sometimes all we can do is cling on to his promise that one day, 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain' (Revelation 21:4).
Matt Bird is an international speaker, author & broadcaster @MattBirdSpeaker & Founder of Cinnamon Network International @CinnamonNetwork
