Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
9 17 2025
When Triumph and Disaster Meet at the Cross
These last several weeks go far beyond 911, school and church shootings and the assassination of Charlie Kirk although they have left us shaken — as families, as churches, and as a country. And if it hadn’t something is even more deeply wrong. I know It feels like another deep valley, another disaster we cannot easily make sense of. And yet, in times like these, we are reminded that history and human wisdom alone are not enough to guide us through.
Kipling once wrote, “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.” His words carry weight, but they are only an echo of what God Himself has given us in His Word. Paul said in Philippians 4:11–13:
|“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances… I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” And James wrote in James 1:2–4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
Even in our grief and outrage, God has not abandoned us. He is calling us to ask: “Lord, what do You want us to see and to learn in this?” Have you? I think that is what our nation is doing right now.
These tragic events are much bigger than their individual happenings. We are in a spiritual war, not just a battle, and God IS talking. Malachi 4:6, states that God sent Elijah the prophet to pronounce: “turn the heart of the fathers to their children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. The verse is a promise of reconciliation and restoration within families, signifying a greater spiritual connection there and in our communities, churches, and beyond. To a period of spiritual renewal.
If we are honest, we have been thick-headed and proud as a people and a nation. Just listen to the rhetoric! We have traded humility and open dialogue for division, and we have let anger take root where understanding should live. But God is always faithful to show us the way home,
if we are willing to humble ourselves before Him.
As families, this tragedy reminds us to cling tightly to one another, to talk about what’s happening beneath the surface and speak truth in love, and to raise our children with courage and compassion, but holding tightly to God’s principles no matter how unpopular
.
As churches, it calls us back to the foot of the cross — where pride is stripped away and where we learn again to be peacemakers in a broken world.
As a country, it is a sobering call to remember the values we once held dear: family, faith, honesty, respect for life, and the willingness to talk openly about our differences in search of truth.
Families, churches, and communities once knew how to speak across differences. In this moment of loss, can you see that God is calling us back to the values that once held us together?
If I could leave one lesson from my own life…— from both mistakes and mercies — it would be this: humble yourself quickly before God, resist pride, opinions, and trust His promises.
Because in the end, He alone is the Lover and Lifter of our heads.
He alone can bring us home, and our country home, even in the darkest days.
Pray for revival.
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