a hope to hold onto | September 15, 2025

How do we how do we find God in tragedy? So how is God still sovereign? How do we process the sovereignty of God even in tragedy? Today, I wanna talk about something that every one of us will deal with, and that's that is tragedy. That's heartache, heartbrokenness, the sudden loss of someone we love, the unexpected phone call, the diagnosis, or even just the weight of living in a broken world.

When tragedy strikes, a lot of times we're gonna ask the question, like why, why God? Like why did that happen? Right? And it's a hard thing to process. But it's important to know that the Bible doesn't ignore this topic.

Right? You look at the story of Job, it doesn't ignore the reality of tragedy. But Psalm 34 offers us a promise or a hope, that is the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. That means that God doesn't stand afar off when we are broken. That he actually draws nearer to us even in the season where we are the most broken or even when we're the most confused.

Right? So in this week, I think there's a lot of confusion, processing, a lack of understanding. And today, I wanna share with you the struggle of faith. Let's be real. Like, we're in the middle of heartbreak.

There's no question about it. You look at the recent events and the culture of this world, it's hard not to ignore the reality of heartbreak. So it doesn't always feel like God is close, but we wrestle like we're wrestling with this reality and we ask hard questions. Even Jesus himself said, Hey, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He felt the separation for the first time ever from the heavenly Father.

And so if the Son of God cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It's okay. It's okay to ask the hard question to God. It's okay to process that question, why do I not feel the sovereignty of God in this season? But yet, know truths are gonna be our anchor.

And the truth is that God is still sovereign. He does rule and reign with a promise that eternity is better. And so here's the hard but hopeful truth that God is still in control. Even when it feels like it's out of control, Isaiah 55 is one of my favorite scriptures. It says that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways are higher than our ways.

So even when we don't understand, we can hold on to the truth that his truth is higher, and his thoughts are higher, and his ways are higher. And so that we can we can hold on to the promise of Romans 8:28 that he will work out all things for our good in his glory. And those are truths that we can hold onto that keep us grounded. That the good news of the gospel is this, that even when tragedy does have the final word, Jesus conquered sin and death, and that one day he is going to restore all things, that our hope is not in this world, but our hope is in eternity. Our hope is in the fact that one day he will have the final word, that one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth.

Revelations twenty one four says that he will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. And until that day comes, we hold onto the hope. Psalm 30 verse 5 reminds us that weeping may last for a night, but rejoicing will come in the morning. You know, the night of grief will be over. It does not last forever, and that God's mourning of joy will break through.

So what do we do? Like, do we process this season? And when we're hurting and the answers don't make sense, like how do we process that? So I think the most important thing is that we lean on each other. That in this season, we lean on God's promises and truth, and we lean on each other, our faith community, our people around us.

We pray, right? We talk to God. He process, he can hold on to, and he can handle even our hardest questions. And so we lean on our community, we pray, we process with the Lord, and let his spirit just move over us. And we choose faith even when we don't feel it.

We hold on to Galatians 6:2, that we carry each other's burdens, and in this way we fulfill the law of Christ. And so if you're walking through tragedy, if you're walking through this season where things don't make sense, there is hope, that the God of hope can fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. As you trust in him, don't trust in this world, don't trust in the ways of this world, But know that his thoughts, Isaiah 55, his thoughts are higher. His ways are higher. And that in the end, his promises will come to pass.

And there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And that is the hope that we can all hold on to.