Crisis & Tragedy
Nobody was ready for this.
There is no version of this that we saw coming or prepared for. It arrived without warning. And the shock of it — the way it has scrambled everything that felt normal and safe and predictable — is a legitimate and appropriate response to what happened.
You don’t have to be okay right now. You don’t have to make sense of this. This doesn’t make sense.
Read this passage slowly.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.
Psalm 46:1–2 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Though the earth give way. The world coming apart. That’s not a metaphor for mild difficulty — it’s the language of complete catastrophe. And the psalmist’s response is not: I don’t feel anything. It’s: there is a refuge that holds even when the earth is giving way.
The shock of sudden tragedy does something specific to the nervous system and the mind. It disrupts the basic sense of safety that allows people to function normally. The world that felt predictable is revealed as not predictable. The person who was there yesterday is not there today. And the gap between those two realities is what the shock lives in.
What this room needs right now is not explanation or theological framework or quick comfort. It needs the presence of other people who are in the same shock. The refuge of not being alone in it. The knowledge that the God who is described as an ever-present help in trouble is in this room right now, with all of you, in the chaos and the grief and the disorientation.
You are not alone in this. That is enough for right now.
The world that felt predictable has been revealed as not predictable. The refuge that holds when the earth gives way is the only thing that helps right now.
Is there anything you need right now — from this room, from each other — that would help you be in this together?
Practical care question. Let the room identify what it needs rather than assuming.
You are not alone in this. The refuge is here. That is enough for now.
This devotional is for the immediate aftermath of sudden tragedy. It should be brief and primarily create presence rather than provide content. Professional crisis support should follow.
Do not move quickly through this. The silence, the tears, the sitting together are the devotional.