When I was browsing in the Campus Crusade Media bookstore, I came across a book entitled, Into the Deep by Robert Rogers. It was a testimony of how Robert, his wife Melissa, and their four children were driving home from a wedding when they were caught in a flash flood. Robert was swept away in the flood but he survived. His family, however, did not.
The tragedy had taken away his family but could not take away his faith. I was compelled to read it. I raced through the first third of the book in one night as it was the account of what happened that terrible night. On 31 August, 2003, Robert was driving his family through Emporia, Kansas in heavy rain when he was caught in a jam on the I-35 heading south. Before too long, a huge wall of water burst from the nearby Jacob Creek and washed his minivan away.
My heart crumbled along with his as he grieved for his family. The hours after he was rescued were the worst for him as his life came to a complete halt while he waited for news about his family. He struggled to understand why God would let this happen to him. When the rescue workers eventually reported back that none of his family were alive, Robert took it hard and he found it almost impossible to believe that his God would let such a thing happen. I say almost because the remarkable thing about him was that his faith was strong. He told God that he would believe and trust in him on a minute-by-minute basis because that's all the strength he could muster. And God reached down to him and supplied him the strength, peace and faith he needed.
The road to healing and recovery took more than a year (which too me is amazingly short). Robert had a strong relationship with God and though he didn't understand why all this happened, he chose to trust God. And God continued to tell him through many ways that even in the worst tragedies, God was in control and there was a purpose to all things, even the bad things.
As Robert himself says at the end of the book:
I have learned that nothing can ever separate me from God's love. I know that even if everything that happens to me isn't good, God can still bring good out of everything. I have seen it in my life, and with my family—both before the flood and since then.
He goes on to say he now understands that the troubles and challenges he faced in his life before the tragedy was God's way of preparing him to handle such a big blow. And most of all, his family's deaths were not without purpose. Through their deaths, he has managed to be a witness to God for many people and today he runs a ministry that teaches people how to treasure their families and live a life of no regrets. He knows that God's way is the best way, even if it leads through dark valleys at times.
For me, it really was a lesson on how to accept the sovereignty of God and it was a such a big testimony to the truth that "for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28).
