The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

As a grief counsellor, people look to Dr Clifford Smith III to help them answer the questions surrounding the death of a loved one.

But after the death of his father, Dr Smith found himself with a feeling of uncertainty and questions which years of experience could not answer.  

One of the main questions he had was about people seemingly dying “before their time”.

Dr Smith, who is also a Christian minister, decided to go on a search for the answers, some of which can be found in his new book “Triumph over Tragedy”. 

“One of my research questions as a grief counsellor has always surrounded the enigma of untimely death. I’d never quite been able to find a clear path to give an answer to my clients. Then, when my father died early in is his lifespan at 59 years old, I had to expand the research and get answers for myself. Since then, many other people who we all love and respected have been lost in some of the most horrific ways known to man. Mine was the quest to uncover where God was in all of it. That’s how the book came to be,” he told Tribune Religion. 

“Triumph over Tragedy”, he said, is a revelatory letter from God, outlining His will for our lives.

The book explores the meaning and purpose of longevity. 

“The book proceeds to clarify God’s role as the giver rather than the taker of life; that at the moment of our death God receives us into greater life, and when it seems that we have been taken away from those who love us in this world, it was death that did the taking and not God,” said Dr Smith.

One of the main things Dr Smith hopes to offer with his book are the tools to help overcome the shock and anguish caused by a sudden and tragic death.

“Triumph over Tragedy” delves deeply into the possibility of evil in this world. The book posits that the worst tragedy of all is to live in denial about the potentially disruptive and destructive nature of evil. Dr Smith said the book presents several logical and spiritual procedures that should prove effective in combating and avoiding the evils of tragedy itself.

The message he wants to send to readers is that God is with them on their journey through this life, and if tragedy catches them off-guard, He has a new life plan in eternity.

“Tragedy-stricken people need the purpose of life in God to get unstuck and the fuel of continuity to fly again. This is what I hope happens when people read this book,” he said. 

Dr Smith serves as senior pastor at the Southside Christian Church, of which he is also a co-founder. He is married to Dr Judy L Smith and they have two children, Kaitlyn and Caleb.