Photo Credit: Romeo Ranoco/Reuters
The mystery of missing flight Malaysian Airlines 370 only intensifies with each passing day. How can 239 souls simply vanish? As the investigation has changed from finding a fallen aircraft to searching for evil intent that commandeered this aircraft and where did they all go, the agony of not knowing is surely some of the most unimaginable pain someone could ever know.
I can’t even fathom the pain these families are enduring as they have surely been “all over the map” emotionally, logistically, and probably spiritually. How does one keep faith and hope alive in an ever-changing crisis?
You simply get up and go on, trusting God in every breathe, moment, and step. Sometimes you don’t even know you have faith or hope, until you look back and you realize that’s all you had or you wouldn’t be here now.
I have never experienced the depth of unknown that these families have, but the few intensely difficult, extremely painful circumstances I have had to endure, all in relatively short order, has both tested and strengthened my faith.
These are the questions we wrestle with whenever the intensely painful unknown occurs:
Why did this happen?
Did I do something to cause this? Did I deserve this?
Could I (or others) have prevented this?
Where is God in all this? Is He even aware I can not deal with this for one more minute, even more so, one more day?
And yet you do. You will. Though time stops in your world, the rest of the world keeps on moving forward.
And everything in life is divided into two chapters:
BEFORE and AFTER
You know the moment this occurs, from here until the end of your life, everything else will be referenced by assigning whether it happened before or after. I don’t know why. It’s just the way the mind works.
I’ve read the posts. I’ve seen the news. I’ve heard every speculation imaginable, as have you. But this is what my heart knows:
THERE ARE 239 LOST SOULS ON BOARD
My heart hurts because we struggle when we cannot know what only God knows.
It also hurts because each of these souls are so very precious to not only their families, but to God.
My heart hurts because I’ve walked the solitary path of unfathomable grief that only the bravest wish to hear.
My heart hurts because I know what it means to have to wake up with unknowing.
My heart hurts because I know life is brief; and despite our best executed plans, our dreams of how we wish our future to be can’t be guaranteed.
My heart hurts because I’ve known through harsh experiences, what it means to cry out to God to save someone, please just SAVE THEM. It may be their life; it may be their soul.
Sometimes God seems silent. I’ve learned not to mistake God’s silence for God’s absence.
We are not in control; we settle for a certain comfort in thinking we are.
Certainly, our soul hungers to know that those we love are okay. Especially when we are suddenly severed from someone we love. Like phantom limb pain, our hearts throbs with longing and memory and beats to the rhythm of hope, no matter how slim. Wherever we are, we feel as if we are held hostage to both yesterday and tomorrow, barely enduring today.
Every time you hear or read a story, remember that talk is cheap and media can dull our mind if we don’t hear properly: that is to say with intention, not just attention. The investigators have a job to do. But so do we:
Those of us who believe, have a calling to pray for the souls of each person on board MA 370 as well as their families. These souls who disappeared in the sky over a week ago are this: BELOVED friend, coworkers, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, beloved grandchild of many remaining souls here on earth.
Pray for wisdom. Pray for resolution. Pray for miracles. Pray for the peace that passes understanding in Christ Jesus. May you see this and appreciate your own family and life more. Don’t leave angry. Say I love you before you say good-bye. Find, and then focus on what really matters.
Today I pray that God has the souls of Malaysian Air Flight 370 are in the palm of His hand, that they are in His perfect care, as the families carry on in courage and hope. Because they too were/are loved.
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. Romans 10:1
U2’s One Tree Hill – Auckland, NZ
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