A few years back Patty & I met a family while on vacation. As is common with my wife and I we began to enter into a conversation with them as we are often intrigued by people’s stories. Not only where they had been on vacation, but what they’ve seen and what interesting places they have visited. At some point the conversation turned a bit more personal and we began to ask talk about family things. We were certainly not trying to pry or be intrusive, but it just naturally turned in this direction. When I ask about his children the gentleman’s head dropped, his eyes began to well up, and he choked up. His adult daughter who was with us had to answer the question that the dad could not answer. He had just lost his son (the girl’s brother) recently in a tragic situation, and the dad was taking a ‘vacation’ with his daughter and son in law to help overcome the tremendous sadness and understandable dark cloud that was hovering over his life right now. We had learned just enough about them to learn that they were Jewish in background. During the explanation of the tragedy my wife and I also got pretty quiet. and there was as expected this tremendous pause on our part as I was prayerfully trying to decide just how or even if I should respond. There is no set answer on how to respond or even if one should respond. The worst thing someone can do in this kind of situation is to pass it off as just a normal part of life… or make some kind of comment like… “I’ve seen this happen with others so shake it off!” How rude and inappropriate that would be. We all know that there is tragedy in every household but comparing it with others NEVER helps anything.
After a little time listening, I decided to quote an Old Testament passage of the Promises of God, in this case to someone who I felt might find some great meaning in the Scripture and the prophets of old. I quoted the most famous of all the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah.
Isaiah 40:28-31 “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
This Sunday July 28 this will be our focus passage as we are studying through the Promises of God all summer. I encourage you to do three things in order to prepare for worship.
- Find and meditate on Isaiah 40:28-31 in your own Bible.
- Read the entirety of Isaiah chapter 40 in your Bible and let God speak to you.
- Contemplate your own questions, struggles, battles and even tragedies, and ask God to give you this kind of strength.
When I shared this truth from the prophet Isaiah with this family, they did not respond immediately, they just listened. I of course told them that I was a Christ follower, and how deeply I knew the only real truth can be found in the Scripture — all of Scripture. I sincerely acted out of heartfelt compassion in light of an obvious tragedy that would shake all of us. I certainly passed no judgement in any way on them, nor did I go into a full Gospel presentation. I just was asking God to use His Word to speak to this family that was dealing with the depth of a personal tragedy. About an hour later we ran into them again, and the dad came up to me and with no warning gave me a huge hug and thanked me for bringing this truth about the Almighty God to him. Again, I don’t know any more of the story nor do I know where they are today. But I believe in the power of God’s Word and God’s promises. I still prayer for this family regularly.
This is what I am asking God to do with us this coming Sunday as we study this powerful promise out of Isaiah 40.
See you Sunday.
