“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ESV)

This morning I heard a lady on the radio recount how her daughter died because the hospital failed to recognise the condition of her daughter’s accident and fatal sepsis. The doctors, according to her, made management errors until finally it was too late.

She believed there are lessons needed to be rolled out nationally to prevent more reoccurrences, which was why she was on the radio but, that will not bring this child back to her mother. It was all very raw. 

Some thirty-five years ago, with the birth of my second daughter Sarah, I had to start my journey of learning to trust God in worldly situations beyond my control.  Praise God she was healed and what I learnt was to accept God’s decisions on how He does things.

Later, when I suffered my own life threatening illness some fourteen years ago, I had to re-learn to praise to God and hope that He would give me a favourable answer to save my life.

Listening to this lady being faced with a daughter’s death I could sense her emotional frustration and anger at what she has been put through by inaction. My heart cried out!

Her words evoked the remembrance of both mine and Sarah’s journeys back then.  

As I reflected upon my memory I realised that none of this was of Jesus’ doing, He was there with us all the time.  It was this world’s random heartlessness I feared and the Evil One played with inside.  I prayed for Jesus to revisit this place of trepidation in my heart and asked for Him to deliver me from the sense of helpless anxiety it had conjured up from its hiding place. 

I am at peace now because, by prayer, I can lay it down at Jesus’ feet for as many times as it is needed, praying to bring Jesus into the situation when I am having a bad day or in despair.

From these times I have learnt I am not very brave, which is why I lean on Jesus so hard, and You can too.  When we come running back to Him He shows Himself to be faithful – even when the world bites and we fall apart inside.

Prayer: LORD, we bring You all those who feel betrayed and defeated by life’s unfairness and suffering because of someone else’s actions.  We bring to You all those who have lost loved ones and cannot understand why it happened the way it did.  May they know Your Peace and may Your light shine in them as a salve to comfort their hurts and reassure them of Your Love, in Jesus’ name amen.

Rod Marshall