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| (Boston Local 103 IBEW) |
My heart got ripped out during the 2013 Boston
Marathon. Although we have all anguished over the dead and injured many times
after similar, senselessly tragic events, I always had a sense of detachment. They
happened somewhere else. I didn’t know anyone directly involved. I’ve never
been there.
But having grown up in the Boston area and run The Marathon
just last year, the bombings this year became personal. I had been in the
crowds and experienced the joyous electricity among the spectators as a kid,
and I was finally able to fulfill a lifelong goal of being the focus of that
excitement as a competitor in 2012. I can say the commitment and multiple years
of training and preparation it takes to get to the starting line as a runner is
matched only by the years of commitment and encouragement provided by a
runner’s friends and families. Friends and families that were ripped apart for simply
offering encouragement – 26.2 miles of beautifully loud and raucous
encouragement - where it is needed most.
I keenly understood many aspects surrounding this
event, and when I first heard of the bombings, my response was intensely
furious. I’ve got to do something! Instinctively, I wanted the perpetrators
brought to justice. If I were being honest, I wanted an eye for an eye, tooth
for a tooth, severed limb for severed limb. But, honestly, what could I do?
In 2 Chronicles 20:1-30, the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat,
is faced with disaster thanks to an impending invasion by overwhelming army,
and he’s wondering what to do. “Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the
Lord” (v3), and he prayed intensely before concluding with this appeal to God: “For
we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know
what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (v12).
The Lord answered “Do not be afraid; do not be
discouraged. Go out and face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you”
(v17). The next day, as the people of Judah “began to sing and praise, the Lord
set ambushes” against the invaders (v22), and the armies completely annihilated
each other (v23). There is no mention of Judah’s people lifting a finger during
the battle, only their voices.
Whether it’s an invading army, mad bombers, natural
disasters, a cancer diagnosis, bullies, or a host of other things that make
hearts quake with fear, what can you do? We cannot control what might happen to
us. As Jehoshaphat said, we don’t have any power over those things, and we
should acknowledge as much by praying to the One who does.
