Are you overwhelmed with grief in the face of recent tragedy? These utterly evil acts can leave us struggling to embrace hope with no idea what healthy responses look like. And it’s difficult to express that pain if we weren’t present or don’t personally know anyone involved in these tragedies.

We ache over the evil our eyes behold, yet we also feel guilt for going about our day after turning off the news. We struggle with wanting to do anything we can to help, while at the same time not knowing what we can do to help.

How do we grieve and support but also not obsess over events we can’t control? How do we respond to evil and the corrupt, loud voices with healthy responses?

Healthy Responses to Grief and Tragedy: Your Faith is Not Insufficient

While those who follow the evil one taunt Christians by asking, “Where is your God” when tragedy hits (Psalm 42:9-11), our first response should not be heading to social media to blast our thoughts on the matter, nor should it be clicking on news article after news article to find out what political arguments have transpired.

Here are three healthy responses we must take to embrace hope in the face of tragedy.

1: Pray

Our first response should be getting on our knees in prayer.

We’re commanded to weep with those who weep and pray for those who are sick and hurting. When we pray, we speak to the God of the universe. The God of all comfort. He knows and understands all that transpires on this earth. Nothing surprises Him.

As we face each day, there will be evil we cannot comprehend and situations beyond our understanding. How can we not seek God in those moments?

Our prayers are not insufficient. We pray for strength to endure trials and for God’s truth to reveal itself during these times. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and we can pray boldly before the throne of God. Even when we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit intercedes on our behalf (Romans 8:18-30).

May we never fear our prayers are insufficient. May we never believe the lie that praying for others is futile. Our prayers are powerful (James 5:13). Believing prayer is insufficient is believing God has assigned us a meaningless power and mode of communication with Him.

Are you willing to accuse God of that?

2: Act

While prayer is not insufficient the way God designed it, we are called to do more than pray. God commands us to care for the widows and orphans. He tells us whatever we do for the least of these, we do for Him. And if we know we’re supposed to do good but ignore it, we sin.

How do we know what to do and when to do it? Not to put these words on repeat, but pray and ask God to reveal how you can help. If you have the time and resources, go and do. If you have the ability to provide awareness where you are, go and do. We shouldn’t ignore the actions for the prayers.

If you are not able to physically help in some way, do not feel guilty. This guilt is not from God. As long as you haven’t created an excuse or are ignoring God in order to not help, you have no reason to feel responsible. Do what you can and allow yourself to be stretched beyond your comfort zone, but don’t feel guilt for what you cannot accomplish.

3: Prepare

We live in a fallen, sinful world. From the moment Eve listened to Satan’s lies, sin began clawing at peace, leaving bloody, ugly stains wherever it went. We cannot escape tragedy this side of heaven, for until Jesus returns and defeats Satan once and for all, we live fighting against sin. 

Jesus even warned His disciples to not be frightened when they heard about wars and uprising, for all these tragedies must happen before He returns (Luke 21:9-11). And Paul reminded Timothy that men would live treacherous, evil lives (2 Timothy 3).

As believers in Jesus, we should not lose hope when we learn about the next horrific tragedy. We should mourn and comfort, we should help however we can, but we should not feel overcome with grief to the point of losing sight of the truth. 

Yes, these tragedies prove horrendous. They break our hearts. But if we go about our days overcome with a sense of loss, asking God how all this could happen, then we have forgotten something: Jesus wins in the end. 

Imagine how our perspectives would change and the truth we could spread to those around us if, instead of living in the fear of what will happen next and the grief of what just did happen, we chose to trust God in the midst of sin. If we chose to leave the judgement to God, the wind and the waves to God. If we spread hope in the midst of tragedy. Because the evil will continue until Jesus returns.

What Now?

We cannot lose hope in the power of prayer and the power of Jesus’ return. John Piper said it beautifully in his audio clip on grief: “Occasionally, weep deeply over the life that you hoped would be. Grieve the losses. Feel the pain. Then wash your face, trust God, and embrace the life that He’s given you.” 

Embrace the life God has given you. We all will suffer during our time on Earth. Jesus tells us blessed are those who mourn, for they will receive comfort. We must comfort, we must mourn, we must help when we can. But then we must wash our face, trust God and embrace life.

For Jesus wins in the end.

Learn how one of Jesus’ most devoted followers dealt with the horror of pain and death as she watched her Savior murdered on a cross. Travel with me through the story of Mary Magdalene, and learn how you can listen for the voice of Jesus calling you by name.

Learn more here!