Crisis & Tragedy
People are watching this program right now in a way they aren’t watching it during the normal season.
Not because of the record. Because of what happened. And the way this team carries itself — the choices you make about how you grieve, how you show up, how you treat each other and the people around you — is going to say something to this community about what it looks like to navigate something terrible with dignity.
That is a real opportunity. It is also a weight. Let’s talk about how to carry both.
Read this passage slowly.
Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Let your light shine before others. The instruction is not to perform for an audience. It is to be genuinely who you are in a way that is visible — to let the character that actually exists in this room become evident to the people who are watching. The light that shines is the real thing, not the performed version of it.
This is the distinction that matters for a team under public attention in a moment of tragedy. The community that is watching does not need this team to perform grief that is proportionally correct or recovery that arrives on a schedule that feels right to the outside. They need to see a group of people who are genuinely in something hard together and are choosing to be for each other and for the community in the middle of it.
That is actually within reach. You are already doing it — or you can be. The showing up to practice when you don’t feel like it. The way the team treats the people who have been around the program during the crisis. The willingness to be seen in the grief rather than rushing past it. The competition that carries the weight of the moment with full effort and genuine heart.
Be who you actually are. Do it with the awareness that others are watching and that what they see matters to them. That is the complete instruction.
The community doesn’t need this team to perform correct grief on a schedule. They need to see a group of people genuinely in something hard together, choosing to be for each other. Be that.
What does it look like for this team to carry itself well in public during this season? Not what the optics require — what genuine dignity looks like from this room.
The distinction between performance and genuine character is the point. The honest answer produces the actual guideline.
Be genuinely who you are. Let it be visible. That’s the whole instruction.
This devotional is for programs that have become a focal point of community attention due to tragedy. It should follow the earlier crisis devotionals, not precede them.