Tragedy near and far…….
This last weekend was marked by tragedy.
Abroad, the earthquake in Haiti has claimed an estimated 200,000.
Right here, a McCall-Donnelly high school student’s life ended.
There are two things that tend to affect us about tragedy; level of impact such as the large numbers involved in Haiti, and personal connection such as someone dying close to home, where we may have known him or his family, or his friends. This last weekend was tragic on both of those levels.
On Monday night at our high school bible study I asked our students if anything that we have been talking about for the last year and a half has any relation to these tragedies right now? It’s a valid question. If there is any part of my life where God may not apply, where I would need to look outside of Him for a valid solution or answer, than is this worth our time?
I’ve had a couple of encounters this week with some who have had a knowledge of God for at least a very long time, who are good and moral people, who attend church, who are even active in their churches and when tragedy struck immediately began looking elsewhere for an answer for those who were hurting. It was painful actually.
It’s not as if they would say, or even think that God might not have….or be the answer, for some reason they just immediately began looking elsewhere.
This started me thinking quite a bit on a couple of levels, first of all what is my natural and immediate response to these tragedies, and secondly why?
Jess and I had one of our students stop by and talk to us about all of this, the first thing I said was I don’t have an acceptable answer as to why God allows tragedies. I said that I can come up with a lot of theories, some of them even pretty good I think, as to why. In fact people have been trying to answer that as long as we have been here (just read Job). I also said that I really don’t know what God’s part in these tragedies is. A lot of people try to figure that out as well (just look at Pat Robertson).
What I do know to be true though is God is good. He is good and therefore all that He does is good. I also know that He is love. He doesn’t merely have great love for us, or even choose to love us, He is love. He is good and He is love. My participation in this then is do I choose to trust Him? Not do I trust that He will do something specific or behave in a certain way, but do I choose to trust Him? Do I choose to trust that He knows what He is doing….whatever that may be? Do I choose to trust that He will respond in whichever way is absolutely best? Do I choose to trust that He desperately loves the ones who are directly involved? Do I choose to trust that He will only do what is good, and right, and loving?
This has become much easier for me in the last several years. The reality I have been confronted with is what is my option? I mean really, do I think I know what’s best? Do I think I can handle a monumental catastrophe? Can I see the other side of tragedy? Do I want people coming to me to explain myself? It makes it much easier to trust Him with all of this when He truly is the best option. And I thank Him regularly that He is the best option. He has no weakness. He has no blind spots. He doesn’t miss the ‘big picture’. He doesn’t overlook the small things. He is infinitely detail oriented. He makes it easy for me to trust Him…..and then leaves the option to me of whether or not I will.
So why do we naturally respond in trusting Him or trusting other than Him? Quite simply it has to do with who I really am. Is my Christianity, my faith, a system of beliefs or is it a way of life?
In the 17 and 1800′s there was a sweeping move in the churches to reclaim the truths of Christianity. There had been much corruption and false teaching for personal gain, and so a series of “Great Awakenings” was born. Revival movements to hold fast to the truths of God’s word. These were profoundly important moments in our church history and they have carried forward to today shaping many of our church bodies and denominations. There are always two sides to a coin though. The other side of these “Great Awakenings” were that churches, and more specifically denominations, began to feel the need to defend and fight for the ‘truth’ even with one another. There were great divisions that were born in this time…that also have carried forward to today. One of the natural consequences of this ‘defending the truth’ movement were generations of ‘believers’ who sought doctrinal purity over practice, in a sense finding more importance in believing the right things than the kind of person they were…or were becoming. Their Christianity, their faith, had become a system of beliefs as opposed to a way of life.
The natural and immediate response that will come from me will come from who I am, from my way of life. Want to know my way of life, what I really believe deep down in my gut…watch how I naturally and immediately respond to life situations. I can profess to believe anything, and I’m only reading the seed packet, want to see what kind of tree I really am, look at the fruit that grows in my life. I can’t come up with that on my own.
This is the gospel that our world needs to see. A gospel that says I don’t just profess to believe these things are true, but they actually change who I am, and it can change you too. A gospel of light and hope. A gospel that says I don’t have to have all of the answers, just the most important one, Him. That I can actually let Him rule and reign in my life, that I don’t have to worry about losing control of everything because I’ve already given Him control. A gospel that says I can trust Him with the worst kinds of tragedies because He is good, because He is love and because He can handle it.
This is the kind of person I want to be, the natural and immediate kind….who lives this great life….not just talks about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment