That’s the experience of being ambushed by grief.

We witnessed it at the Vancouver Olympics. Before the celebration of the opening ceremonies even got stated, grief invaded. Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old luge athlete from Georgia died in a tragic accident during a training run on the Whistler course. While we know that the world of sports is dangerous, his untimely death stunned the Olympic community and gripped the hearts of millions of viewers around the globe who were folded vicariously into the grief for this young man whom they’d never met but whose life was snuffed out far too soon. We hurt for a family and village that had lost one of it’s own.

Then, only a few short days later, Joannie Rochette, Canada’s best hope for a medal in women’s figure skating unexpectedly lost her 55-year-old mother just two days prior to her Olympic competition. We witnessed her pain and courage on the ice in the presence of her excruciating loss. Even in the best of circumstances, when celebration is the mood and life seems to be going well, grief can–and often does–invade without warning.

When the earth shakes and buildings topple, loses mount up exponentially. The earthquake ravaged island nation of Haiti is still struggling to crawl out from under the heap of devastation from the  January 12, 2010 earthquake. Less than 7 weeks later, grief struck again. The people of Chile were rocked by an even larger earthquake.

Our hearts are often touched by these and other stories of loss because they grimly remind us that our lives are littered with grief, because we’ve all sustained losses. No one is exempt. Grief comes to us all. And no matter how well we may have planned for it, we are still woefully unprepared for it when it arrives. When it finally comes, we most often feel ambushed.

From Old Testament to the New, the writers of Scripture speak of grief too. They knew what it was like to lose those they loved. They grieved. But grief didn’t have the last word.

Paul made it clear that trusting in God doesn’t exempt Jesus followers from grief. Instead, he qualified our grief as being different than those without faith in 1 Thes. 4:13 when he wrote that we don’t “grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.” Paul’s grief with hope echoes the words of King David who wrote 1,000 years earlier in Psalm 30:5, “. . . weeping may remain for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”

Jesus was the epitome of grief with hope. He groaned with grief. He wept with His friends over the loss of their sibling and His friend (John 11:33-35). Please notice that grief with hope doesn’t hurt less. In fact, if you love deeply as God has freed you to love, you will hurt deeply when you lose those you love. Jesus modeled that too. The depth of His grief demonstrated the depth of His love (John 11:36).

So, where do you turn when you feel ambushed by grief? You turn somewhere. But, where? Unfortunately, we all naturally turn to people and things other than God. I’d love to hear what you’ve learned from your experiences with grief without hope as well as with grief with hope.

But, sadly to say, tragedy not only brings out the best in us; it also unearths the worst in us as well. I was reminded by a reader that heroes are only one part of the story. There are villains too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_ovaska/4310705180/sizes/m/in/set-72157623117387161/

As the compassion of the world converged on thepeople whose desperate plight had dominated the news for days, there were others who also showed up. The traffickers. Those who specialize in making money from the exploitation of human suffering and desperation. With promises of a new life of hope where hope is in short supply, they scarf up unsuspecting children, teens, and women who are without family and means . Taking  what seems to be the only option offered, many are sold into the modern day slave trade–most of whom will be sexually sold over and over again until there is nothing left but the hollow shell of a human being.

Human trafficking is a satanic virus that is engulfing the world of humanity faster that anyone ever imagined. The U.S. State Department estimates that 800,000 people are illegally trafficked against their will every year around the world. 50% are children. 70% of the women are sold into sexual slavery where they are chained to beds of torture 24/7. The FBI reports that the new slavery–human trafficking–is the fastest growing segment of organized crime. They conservatively estimate that 100,000 are trafficked inside America each year.

Unthinkable? I wish it were. But it’s not. It’s this kind of evil that keeps me up at night.

Yes, there are still heroes who exemplify self-sacrifice. But we must not hide our heads in the sand and pretend that there are not those who have so given themselves over to a way of life that is so antithetical to God’s image that it often looks like the darkness of their sole has completely eclipsed any ray of hope that any honest observer would question if the image of God is even present in them at all. That’s a severe loss of heart.

The New Testament writer, Paul, described a severe loss of heart as hard-heartedness in Romans 1:21-31. He used phrases like: “For although they new God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened . . . they exchanged the truth of God for a lie . . . they have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity . . . they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless . . .” (vs. 21,25, 29, 31).

So, is it hopeless? How can we stem the tide of such overwhelming evil odds?

Haitian refugee girl

Redemption. The hope of the world is that the God who is good entered our dark and lonely world in a man suit to bring a transformation of soul that breaks the heart’s enslavement to darkness by washing it with the light of God’s enduring love. Without Jesus, we perish. With Jesus, we have life. And that’s not only life for us, but we have life and hope to share with others.

Are you moved by the tragedy of human trafficking? Are you wondering what you can do? Check out Women At Risk International. This is an organization of Jesus followers who are passionate about the plight of those ensnared in the clutches of human trafficking. They are working tirelessly in over 50 countries worldwide to expose this blight on humanity and to rescue many from the hands of those who treat fellow image-bearers as mere commodities to be bought and soul. Check them out and pray about what part God may have you play in stemming the tide of human trafficking.

So, why am I telling you this?

Well, George Strait sings one song, “I Saw God Today” that captures the idea that I wanted to write about. The lyrics of the chorus are:

I’ve been to church
I’ve read the book
I know He’s here, but I don’t look
near as often as I should
Yeah, I know I should
His fingerprints are everywhere
I’d just slow down to stop and stare
opened my eyes and man I swear
I saw God today

This song came to mind as I’ve seen and heard the media covering the horrors from the earthquake in Haiti. The images broadcast around the world are tragic and disturbing scenes that we’ve come to expect from catastrophic movies. But this time it’s real. The level of human suffering and devastation is beyond comprehension for any who are not there and overwhelming for those who are.

But darkness and devastation are not the only things we’ve witnessed.

These stories of human tragedy are co-mingled with the stories of the Herculean efforts of so many medical and emergency responders from all over the globe. They’ve dropped everything and flew in from all points of the globe to rescue a tiny island in desperate need. They are tirelessly pouring themselves into the task of saving lives shattered by this earthquake.

What is so amazing is that even the darkest hours of human trauma cannot eclipse the radiance of the outpouring of compassion of these everyday heroes for these precious souls whose lives have been so savagely disrupted by pain and grief. Loss is everywhere. Yet, it’s against this grotesque backdrop of human suffering that the brilliance of the tenderness of God’s image in human compassion is center stage for all the world to see.

It’s the image of God in both the sufferer and the rescuer that binds us together (Gen. 1:26-27). Otherwise, compassion would make no sense. Why are our hearts moved with compassion? It’s the image of God still deeply embedded within the veil of every human heart. That’s why we long to soothe the sufferings of others. Whether one believes in God or not, doesn’t matter. The reality of God  is evident in this outpouring of tenderness and compassion for others that feels natural and good. And that kind of goodness can only be explained in terms of God.

It’s the reflection of God in us that necessitates that we can’t stand by and just watch the suffering. And for those who are followers of Christ Jesus, it’s the “love of Christ” that compels us (2 Cor. 5:14) and calls us to participate in rescuing the perishing and caring for the dying “because  in this world we are like Him” (1 John 4:17).

So what are you doing to reflect God in a world that desperately needs to “see Him?” Maybe you can’t go, but maybe you can help. How? Pray. And then give to an organization with feet at ground zero in Haiti that can make a difference so that people who need a reason to hope will “see God today.”

One of those groups it Baptist Haiti Mission. They have a hospital on their mission compound just outside of Port au Prince that’s been running 24/7 since the earthquake. Check them out at www.bhm.org and maybe others will “see God in you today.”

If you watched the news last night, you saw bodies being taken away in front loading bulldozers. It was, as Michelle Obama describes it, heartbreaking.

I wonder about the children without parents now. I wonder about the thousands of people waiting to get needed medical attention. I wonder how these folks are going to come back and rebuild their lives.

Revelation 12:12 says, “Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”

I’m convinced the suffering in Haiti, and the suffering around the world, is a result of the work of this dragon. His name is Satan and he celebrates our pain. He is our enemy; he knows his days are numbered, so with all he’s got, he’s making war against us, “those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” (v.17)

Let our righteous anger about Satan cause us to pray fevently for those hurting in Haiti. Let’s pray that the supplies can reach them today! And let’s ask that the God of all comfort will be with them and that they will see God’s great power and love.