ACCEPTING
TRAGEDY

Topics: Acceptance; Attitudes; God’s Will; Loss; Tragedy

References: Job 1:21; 2:10; Matthew 26:42

When United States district judge Joan Lefkow came home to suburban Chicago on February 28, 2005, she found her mother and husband murdered. The killer was a man whom she had ruled against in court.

She later told the Chicago Tribune, “As a sojourner on this earth, I don’t feel terribly entitled. I believe the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. It’s your responsibility to accept the adversity as well as the abundance.”

—Mary Schmich, “The Journey of Judge Joan Lefkow,” Chicago Tribune (November 20, 2005)