It's been a rough few days up here in Washington. What started out as a great weekend with friends visiting for Lauren's birthday turned into a weekend of stress and tragedy. Fortunately, the stress was only on my end and Lauren was able to still have a nice weekend.
RVCC lost a dear friend over the weekend at too young of an age. To say that his life was lost is truly an understatement. He invested in our youth and in others around him, he was loved and will be dearly missed.
Processing death is never an easy task especially when it happens to someone so young, it's so easy to question and blame God for tragedies in our lives even when we know that God is on our side throughout the hurt. When I was informed of the potential tragedy on Sunday morning I was blessed to have an awesome leader who helped me to see that no matter what happens the day will end in joy. Either he will be found alive and well and we will rejoice or we will know that he just celebrated his first day in the Kingdom face to face with Jesus. The latter turned out to be true. Having that perspective was not easy and seeing the hurt in our students eyes didn't help either, but it is a reality that I now take comfort in after having processed for a few days.
This weekend left me feeling defeated and broken, but God's grace is sufficient and His guidance never waivers. Latin writers refer to the times where God feels distant as "The Dark Night of the Soul" and this weekend flirted with that for me, but God is faithful and was there the whole time. Our students however are struggling with their own "dark nights". I have my thoughts on how to help them through this but I'd really like to hear your thoughts on ministering during tragedy.
How do you minister to your students who are hurting and going through their dark nights?
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