At some point in life – we all experience major disruptions. Everything’s going along fine and then – BANG – something happens and life will never be the same again. So, is that a threat, an opportunity, or both?

Probably one of the most devastating things that can happen to us in life is when we lose our soul mate, a wife loses her husband or a husband loses his wife. There are a lot of widows out there because we men have a tendency to die a bit younger than women. I like to think that’s because we men work a whole bunch harder than women. That was a joke, right? Please don’t write me any letters. Joke.

Anyhow there are many, many women who are widows and depending on what country and culture you live in there are plenty of men out there whose wives have divorced them. It’s hard to imagine something more devastating than losing your soul mate except perhaps losing a child. Now none of us wishes those things on anyone right? We certainly don’t wish them on ourselves but here’s one thing that I know, at some stage my beautiful wife Jacqui and I will be separated because for one of us our time on this earth will be over.

I’ve seen people react to that sort of loss in a few different ways. First of all, of course, there’s a time of grieving over the loss. That is normal and people should be allowed to grieve and that’s followed by a sense often of emptiness and loneliness. A void that it seems no one else can fill.

But after that, there are basically three different ways that people handle that sort of a loss. Firstly some never recover, they never get over the loss and they pine away, often they pass away soon thereafter. Then there are those who, well they never quite recover, they live kind of a half life, never really enjoying the rest of their life. And then finally there are those who whilst they will always miss their soul mate, get on and they live this new stage of their lives in a different way.

It may not be the loss of a soul mate, it could be that you lose your job, it could be that your house burns down and the only thing left is yourself, all your possessions, all those things you were sentimental about gone. I know a man who lives in a town where the whole place was wiped out by a terrible bush fire a few years ago and many people lost their lives.

I know a young woman with a young family who’s had two major cancer episodes and a limb amputated. Perhaps you’ve suffered an injury or an illness that stops you doing the things that you were once able to do. The thing is we never know what’s around the next corner and what’s over the next rise. Life is just going along fine and then bang, it seems to blow up in your face. Okay, so now what?

I know with absolute certainty that right now there’s someone listening to this thinking, ‘hey that’s me, that’s where I am in life’ and you know I also know that there are people listening today who next week or next month or next year are going to be hit by one of these terrible life changing episodes in their life and they’ll be left reeling and wondering what to do.

So what do you do? What’s the answer? I’ve been through a couple of those in my life and as I look back on them I would never wish them on anyone. In fact not on my worst enemy and yet those tragedies which have left their scars, in a sense they’re part of who I am. They’ve changed me, they’ve moulded me, they’ve shaped me into the person that I would never have become but for those tragedies, in a good way.

Of course I grieved, of course I struggled for a time and yes I needed the help of friends and loved ones, I needed support around me. But there came a point where I had a decision to make and that’s the bit I want to chat about with you today.

There was a three way decision, what will I do? Do I give up on life completely and just die? Do I live a grey half life, never really enjoying the rest of my life? Or do I get on with it? Do I grab life by the horns and get on with it and live it to the full? What am I going to do?

Tragedy has a way of immobilising us but I’m naturally your glass half full kind of guy, it’s how I see the world and so the couple of times in my life things have taken a twist that I would have never had dreamt of or never have wanted for myself, what I’ve discovered is this: a world full of new possibilities. Does that make sense? Tragedies take away something or someone that we love, that’s why it’s a tragedy but with the benefit of hindsight I can also tell you that when the dust settles, when the grieving is over tragedies inevitably remove limitations and boundaries and they open up new possibilities.

There was a man by the name of Job. In fact he has a whole book dedicated to him in the Old Testament of the Bible. He lost everything, a long tragic story, I mean the guy lost all his wealth, possessions, family, friends, health, his status, everything.

He was a really good guy, he was a man who honoured and obeyed God, it was devastating. His friends criticised him, he went to God to ask God why and God refused to answer him but at the end of those trials this is what happened, Job chapter 41, verse 10:

The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Sometimes we’re so busy holding onto that which we lost that we can’t take hold of the new blessings, different blessings that the future holds. When Job was struggling through all his trials he could never had imagined that he’d end up getting double for his trouble.

Can I ask you something? What are you still grieving over? What is it from the past, something that you lost, something that hurt you, something that left you feeling worse off and you just can’t let it go? As long as you hold onto that thing from the past my friend it has a hold over you and as long as it has a hold over you, you can’t take hold of the blessings just around the next corner and over the next rise.

As long as we are grieving over the past that grief robs us of the joy we can experience today and in the future.

Sometimes things happen that aren’t fair, sometimes things happen that we wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves but I know with all my heart, with every fibre of my being that there are new blessings waiting on the other side of that. The only question is, whether you’re prepared to take hold of them.

The simple yet profound truth is that God is a God of blessing. Suffering and blessing visit all our lives. Jesus wasn’t immune, remember? He suffered, He died and yet through all of that God was with Him and at the end, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 20:

God put his power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the age to come and he has put all things under his feet.

Jesus is the name above all names, yes He suffered, Yes He died but yes He rose again and everyone and everything is under His dominion. The earth is His footstool and it’s the perfect hope we have in this risen Jesus that gives us back our future after a tragedy.

Let’s finish up with Gods Word all about hope. 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning at verse 3:

By his great mercy God has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and into an inheritance that’s imperishable, undefiled, unfading, being kept in heaven for you.

Rejoice in this even if now for a little while you have to suffer some trials so that the genuineness of your faith which is more precious than gold that though perishable is tested by fire, might be found to result in the praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.