WHAT NEXT?

        Sometimes when bad things happen, especially multiple things, we are tempted to ask, “Why?” Or, “What next?” Last Friday’s news carried such a story.

        A California woman narrowly escaped death during the Las Vegas shootings last month while attending a concert where nearly five dozen people were killed and five hundred injured. A thousand bullets rained down, injuring people next to her and killing one. But she had not even a scratch. A few days after returning home, however, she was forced to evacuate her Santa Rosa house due to a wildfire that eventually burned 4,000 homes and killed nearly 40 residents. While many nearby neighbors lost their homes, the woman expressed gratitude that her home was spared, 

        What would you say if you were her? “Why?” “What next?” “Thank God I’m still alive!” I’ll guess it would be the latter. If tragedy strikes all around and we’re still alive when it’s over, giving thanks to the Good Lord is surely the first thing to do.

        A farm wife suffers immense injuries in a machinery accident, confining her to a nursing home for the rest of her life. A young pastor’s wife is widowed when he is murdered while making an evening pastoral visit in Chicago. An middle-aged farmer who lost both legs in an machinery accident, loses his wife to a heart attack. A violent auto accident claims the life of a young wife, while her husband has no injuries. 

        Do we say, “Why?” “What next?” Or, “Thank God I’m still alive!” Sometimes maybe all three. Thanking God must be both said and felt, no matter what follows. As hard as it is to understand, Job the Old Testament prophet had it right when he said, “The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” It isn’t that we feel glad God is no longer playing tricks on us, but that He gives us any time of life to live at all.

        A 94 year-old WWII veteran told me of his experience in the Battle of the Bulge, and he repeatedly said,“Only by God’s grace am I alive.” He then quoted a poem his mother had sent him during the war, a hymn verse by Jesse B. Pounds he has kept with him always:

"Any where with Jesus I can safely go, 

Any where He leads me in this world below,

Any where without Him dearest joys would fade, 

Any where He leads me I am not afraid."

        “Thank God I’m still alive!” I’ve said that so often since our auto accident in 1984. I’ve never thought of it as luck, but a genuine goodness from God that He has allowed me to see my sons grow, and marry fine wives and be blessed with good children. And He also has allowed me to experience the love of a second good woman. 

It’s part of a gratitude that helps us say, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com