“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.” Lamentations 3:22
The University of Evansville basketball team was excited about its first season competing in Division I. The Purple Aces were packed and ready for a road trip to Nashville for a game against Middle Tennessee State. Twenty-nine people boarded the charter plane on December 13, 1977, but because of rain and fog, the plane crashed two minutes into the flight. No one survived. When a tragedy like this occurs, our human nature seems to react by asking one of two questions: 1. Where was God? 2. How could God allow this to happen? We doubt either His omnipresence or His omnipotence.
The author of Lamentations witnesses God’s judgment in the form of death and destruction among His chosen people, yet he fully comprehends that God’s mercy can extend beyond His wrath. Though we aren’t capable of praising God with our own strength in the worst of times, the ability to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thes.5:18) is definitely a gift from the Holy Spirit. Picture your worst-case scenario. Maybe it has already happened. Do you believe that God is there in the midst of agony and chaos? Ask Him for clarity so you might see through the sadness to witness the ever-present manifestations of His love, and revel in the newness of the morning.
—Alex Warner
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