What Would You Do?

Jesus came over and touched them. “Get up,” he said, “don’t be afraid.” Matthew 17:7

Rudy Giuliani was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2001. In some quarters, there was controversy around his selection for the honor, but to me it was a clear choice. As I watched the mayor of New York, America’s largest city, run for his life at the site of the World Trade Center disaster on September 11, then give directions for steps to save the city, it just seemed right to give him an award for his clarity and compassion under pressure. Giuliani mobilized millions on a day when the impact of his own personal losses could have immobilized him emotionally.

I had to wonder how I would have responded to that kind of loss.

What do you do in the face of loss? loss of a job? loss of a dream? loss of hope? Many freeze, seemingly unable to move, think, or function. Others spiral into self-pity or self-destruction. But some rise above their own losses and do great things for God and for others.

When you have suffered a loss, I recommend that you turn the pain into positive energy. But how do you do that? How do you turn something that on the surface is a horrible, painful loss into a gain?

Frustration, anger, and grief all have emotional energy behind them. Start by turning that negative energy into a positive in your life and in the lives of others. Get about doing something—anything—constructive or helpful to yourself and others. Make the bed, clean the house, gather friends to pray, or go help another hurting person. Make a list of things you can do, then work your way from the easiest tasks to the most difficult ones.

When you take your pain and turn it inside out, it becomes a platform for doing good, and that is the first step out of despair.

Lord, help me to transform the painful circumstances of my life into positive energy.