It’s getting to the point where one can’t even watch the news anymore. As is now well known, on Aug. 26 during a live morning broadcast, a disturbed former television employee savagely cut down a former coworker and her cameraman. No warning, no advance concerns.

This public murder was senseless, unexplainable. The popular 24-year-old reporter was engaged to be married. Now instead of a happy wedding, lives are shattered.

You can make sense out of life, even if life seems senseless.

Events like this can be emotionally sapping, draining vitality out of our lives. Tragically, in America this type of event is on the rise. As The Economist magazine reported this week in the article To Keep and Bear Arms, mass killings in America are on a record streak in 2015.

One has to ask: Why?

In the past few decades and in the past few years, America has increasingly shown signs of a destabilizing society. Our “entertainment” options have become more violent in nature. Graphic video games that would have once been considered violently pornographic are now common. Our prime time television is littered with permissive voyeurism, as “survivors” of mindless challenges indulge in audience-pleasing conflict.

Our society – whether in America or elsewhere – watches and consumes hours of violent acts and horror and this type of “entertainment” has consequences. The lines between reality and fantasy become blurred. That escapism, coupled with the day-to-day unrelenting challenges of economic uncertainty and other personal trials, can dangerously sap confidence, then hope.

These consequences, with the increasing unraveling of societal ethics, matches step for step the increasing neglect and outright rejection of God and His revealed Word. As we have seen, a hopeless person mired in depression can become delusional and make bad, even terrible, decisions.

Is there a way out? Can we make sense of things when things are senseless?

The confident answer is yes.

While the world around us rages, we are promised access to a “peace that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). We can experience grief over a major loss, pain from a terrible incident or harsh discouragement, but we can still get centered emotionally and spiritually. We can still have peace. And with that peace comes confidence everything will work out.

As the apostle Paul wrote nearly 2,000 years ago, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). The Bible – the precious Word of God – reveals a God who is in control, a God who has a plan for each one of us, a God who loves and cares for us individually. During tumultuous times of impending disaster, God spoke these words through the prophet Jeremiah, just as He affirms them to us today: "'For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11, New International Version).

Even in the midst of mindless violence, when things seem lost, we can have sure confidence that God has a plan, that God has a purpose and that God is faithful.

The Bible has much to say about this. You can make sense out of life, even if life seems senseless.

To learn more, I invite you to request a free copy–or download immediately–two of our popular Bible study guides. The first is Why Does God Allow Suffering?. This short summary will reveal to you the all-powerful God of the Bible and why we can have confidence that He is in control and is present, even when we’re hurting or emotionally agitated. The second study guide I would invite you to read is Making Life Work. Here you can look through a multitude of relevant topics that can improve your life, all written from a biblical perspective.

When senseless acts strike, we all need resources to deal with pain and to keep us centered and on track. I hope you’ll avail yourself of these great resources to see what God has in store for you!

How have recent events affected you? Please write to me at victor_kubik@ucg.org to share your story.