Like many people, I have shed a lot of tears in the wake of the three tragedies that have fallen upon Orlando in recent days. And like many people, and as a person of faith, I am left questioning how could God, who's supposed to be a loving God, allow such horror to happen to innocent people?
There are no good answers to that question. There just aren't. And words like "Everything happens for a reason," which I overheard on a train this morning, sound downright disgusting. Emotions are too raw and lives are too precious for such platitudes.
In our crazy world, and especially in troubling times such as these, it can be nearly impossible for us to pray; yet, for believers, pray we must. Praying is sometimes the only way we can work through the many emotions--anger, helplessness, sadness, confusion--that we are experiencing.
Over the years there has been a way of meditating that has helped me during periods of crisis. It's a way of turning your feelings over to a higher power. You do this by placing them in the hands of God.
The hand of God is a universal symbol of strength, one depicted in art and words over the centuries. We find it in the Thirty-Seventh Psalm, "If the Lord delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumbles, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand." Auguste Rodin's sculpture, The Hand of God, depicts the creation of man coming from, well, God's hand. From Norman Vincent Peale we read in The Power of Positive Thinking: "Put yourself in God's hands. To do that simply state, 'I am in God's hands.' Then believe you are NOW receiving all the power you need. 'Feel' it flowing into you."
When we release our troubles into Gods hands, we can free ourselves of those stresses, fears, and burdens that can be paralyzing in their magnitude. This doesn't mean we forget--that we shouldn't continue to actively work to improve ourselves, our situations, and the world around us. This doesn't mean we shouldn't protest, that we shouldn't publicly mourn, that we shouldn't take positive action. This is just about taking a few moments to silently unload your burdens to a higher power, and to regather your strength for the moments to come.
Here is a simple and quick exercise for releasing your troubles to God, a method of letting go of the stresses you can't do anything about. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths. Imagine before you two outstretched hands. The palms are up and the hands come together as if they are cupping falling water. Hold that image in your mind until it becomes very clear. You can picture the valley these two hands create, and you can see the lines of the palms that look like the contours of a map. These are big hands. These are strong hands. These are powerful hands.
Consider another image. With your eyes still closed, think of a problem in your life, something you've been worrying about, but over which you have absolutely no control. Maybe you're trying to make sense of the recent events in Florida. Maybe you have a broken heart or worries about your health. Hand them over to God and let God take care of them for you. Maybe you're late on your rent because an important check hasn't cleared. Maybe your husband or wife is having a difficult time at work and the horror of layoffs hangs over your heads. Maybe a dear friend of yours is sick. Whatever it is, picture the problem in your mind. Okay. Got it?
I want you to take that image, that problem, the thing you've been worrying about or angry about, and I want you to place it in the open hands. How do you do that? You can imagine the problem as if it were a snapshot, a photograph, or a still life and imagine yourself laying the problem in the palms of these two humongous hands.
Repeat these words: "I place my feelings/my doubts/my anger in the hands of God and have faith that God will help me to heal and understand." Take a few moments to focus on this image and the feelings and sensations you are experiencing. You might struggle in your belief or be skeptical about whether or not this will work. But don't worry about the outcome. Just surrender yourself for a few moments. Then release this prayer, let the image dissolve, and go about living your life.
I've come to realize in recent years that most of our prayers are answered; they may just not be answered in the way we might expect them to be. So stay alert for a word, a sign, an experience that has some kind of significance for you. These moments are encounters with the divine, a form of Morse code that's trying to remind you that at the center of all creation is love. Hard to swallow sometimes, but as the old saying goes, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
We will never truly know why bad things happen in the world, but if we surrender our feelings for a moment to something spiritually bigger than ourselves, tough as that can be, we'll realize that the hands of God can uplift us and help us to see the world from another vantage point. And from that perspective we can see that in the darkness of tragedy, there is also a light of kindness, sympathy, and compassion that will always reigns supreme.
Gary Jansen is the author of The 15-Minute Prayer Solution: How One Percent of Your Day Can Transform Your Life