Tragedy: A Gift or A Curse?

After class today I had an overwhelming feeling of tragedy, tragedy in my life,  tragedy in our world, and tragedy in our very being. It's really hard to explain this very feeling, but after everything that we talked about in class, I was reflecting on my own life and how tragedy changed my life and how I lived with those tragedies. I was reminded of my great- uncle who passed away six years ago from cancer and of my own life living with an abusive step father for a short while and how I dealt with the issues that followed. My great - uncles death devastated everyone in my entire family, we were never the same. Yet, he brought or family and our faith in the Lord closer than it had ever been before,  we still miss him very much, but we remind ourselves of the miracles that the Lord gave him and our family in that time of healing. Also, the tragedy of being abused made me stronger and who I am today. Even though I don't let my emotions show, I can still feel the hurt and pain that reminds me that I'm still human and not a robot or an emotionless being who doesn't understand why we hurt so much. It is true that silence is the loudest noise you'll ever hear in your lifetime, but the truth we hear from that silence can also make us stronger as God's people, friends, and a stronger family in the body of Christ. So we can either think of tragedy in two ways. It can be a gift or it can be a curse. What do you think?