Another stunning and wise posts on my piece about the death of Joe Biden's wife and baby daughter. This is from AnotherBeliever:
I am not a parent, so God knows I did not face that level of pain. But I, too, traveled some dark roads this year. I had to spend fourteen months in Iraq, while dealing with tragedy. My grandfathers both passed away within months, pain enough. But so did my Dad. He was only 46. It was like a nightmare, I kept hoping to wake up from. To this day, I can't really believe that I am going back home to the States, and that I will not see him there.I could go on. If it's happened to you, there's no need to. If it hasn't, you can't know what it's like. The pain has barely faded in its intensity. It just comes less frequently, a year and a half later. I thought some dark thoughts this year. But I could never leave my brothers and mother to face more of the pain than they've already had to. I talked it out with professionals. Mostly I've just endured it. I'm back from the brink, or at least as back as I'm ever going to be.
But I also realize how fragile I am, how fragile the well-being of all of us really are. I am religious, so I state this with conviction, even if I don't mean it quite literally: dark things howl about us, all the time. Most of us are shielded from them, most of the time. But it is a great mystery to me, that God should permit them to be at all, and that he should permit us to experience their presence when we are at our lowest, and defenseless. I have heard no satisfactory explanation for it, though it is some small comfort that Jesus is said to have experienced it himself when he walked this Earth.
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AnotherBeliever, I was deeply moved by your post. My mother died suddenly when I was 18, and my father was serving in Vietnam. Our family, having lost its center, spun into chaos, a chaos that involved mental breakdowns, drug use, runaways, hospitalizations, divorce and unbearable grief.
I have always resisted the easy explanations of some religious believers for why such suffering exists. I'd rather live the apparent contradiction between an all-loving God and the fact that we often suffer through no fault of our own than to try to explain it away with answers that ignore much of what we all see and know--that "dark things howl about us, all the time" and that anyone's life can be shattered in an instant, never to be the same. There IS no satisfactory explanation, and all attempts at one end up denying the truth in one way or another.
But I too take comfort in knowing that Jesus knew suffering and that he is with us in ours. That is, at least for me, the meaning of the cross. Wherever the cross is, wherever there is suffering, Jesus is there.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences. When we are faced with adversity, it is very difficult to see why is this happening to me. You follow God's plan for a righteous life yet you see others who do not and seem to have it so easy. Yes you can take comfort in knowing that Jesus did suffer and at times He did not even understand why. In my darkest times, I realize that eventually there will be some good which will come out of my experience. It may not happen in a week, a month, or a year but God has a plan for each of us and the trials we endure prepare us for our purpose in life. Realize that by the simple act of sharing your thoughts and experience here that you may have already touched someone's life. Your life is a model for others. And when one ask you How do you get through this? The answer is simple, With the Lord's help. Your actions and reaction to tragedy is the guiding light for others to bring them to follow a Christ like life and enjoy the same comfort you have in Jesus.
Know that you are not alone, now you have your grandfathers and father watching over you and "they have your back." Talk to them and they will answer. Continue to walk in your faith and don't stop loving.
Thank you for serving our country. We are all blessed to have dedicated men and women like yourself protecting US.
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