When Tragedy StrikesNäide

Lead With Compassion & Concern

How should we respond when, like a bolt out of the blue, our cherished ideals, family’s safety, future security, and all other dreams of life for which we’ve labored and invested are suddenly threatened? As I pondered and prayed about this question, it became clear to me that there are some answers.

First, we should respond with compassion and concern for those who’re suffering and for those who’re hurting. Since the advent of television, we’re no longer onlookers or passersby. We’ve become part of ongoing events, players in the action. This medium is able to affect us deeply and ignite compassion in us as we see how others in our world are suffering. But there must be a greater role for us to play than that of being deeply touched by what we see and hear on the airwaves. 

What is our responsibility? 

When we go through adversity, it’s reassuring to have someone there to walk with us. It’s comforting to know our God is “the God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3-5), who’s promised never to leave us or forsake us. One of the things we can do in the midst of a tragic circumstance is to reach out to others with compassion and understanding—to walk with those in need and to comfort them (Matt. 5:4). We need to reach out to others in troubling times. Compassionate people are those who feel the pain of others and act to help alleviate that pain in whatever way they can. 

But I also want to remind you that as we reach out to comfort others, our greatest source of comfort has been and will always be God. He’s identified with us in our sorrows and pain because His Word teaches us that He is “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). He understands better than we do our unique situations, uncertainties, and fears. And as He comforts us in the difficulties of our lives, we are then able to help comfort others. 

May I say to you who are suffering, who are deeply grieved and hurt over the losses in your lives, that God will be your source of comfort and strength. He grieves with you as you bear the weight of your losses and shares with you in the awful sense of emptiness and helplessness you may feel. Yet in that grief, He doesn’t leave you. He remains by your side, offering you His mercy in the darkest of days because it’s His desire to comfort your heart (2 Cor. 1:4).