God in the Storm

After Hurricane Katrina it was not unusual to hear preachers claiming the devastation as God's judgment on New Orleans. Not only do I think this is incredibly dangerous to say, I just think it's wrong. That's not what God does.

But the question remains: why would something so awful, an "act of God" like this, happen?

The questions comes down to three points about God and the world, a seeming paradox.

1. God is all good.
2. God is all powerful.
3. Evil exists in the world.

If God is all good and all powerful, how can he let such awful tragedies continue to happen to innocent people?

You can solve the problem by arguing against any one of the three points:

1. God is not all good, so even though he is all powerful he continues to let evil run rampant in our world.
2. God is all good, but the fact that evil remains shows that God is not all powerful
3. What is perceived as evil and pain in this world isn't real, it just appears that way because we are imperfect beings. God is good and in control, we just can't always see what he's up to.

I don't really like any of these. They all have their problems. I guess I lean most towards #2, because I do believe that although God is all powerful, he holds back his power a lot of the time. He does it on purpose out of love for us. Adam and Even had the choice to eat the fruit because God wanted them to be free, free to love and be with him forever if they chose, but that also meant they had to be free to choose something else. And they did. And so do we.

But most of the time, all this theology-talk isn't good enough. God still could have stopped Katrina. Or the Holocaust. Or Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but clearly God did not. I wish he had most of the time. Sure there are silver linings and amazing stories of God and God's people responding. But overall do those outweigh the bad? Are those stories "worth" all the innocent lives lost? You may read this and think that I just lack faith. I'll be the first to say I probably do.

When we're on the ground-level of such pain and disasters, theological debates are worthless. Often times we need comfort more than answers. A lot of the time, I think the comfort is the answer. Where is God in all this?

Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. ~ Luke 8:24
Sometimes, God will answer prayer and stop the storms around us. Since they never come, we may never even realize it.

God, You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in distress, a shelter from the storm, and a shade from the heat. ~ Isaiah 25:4
Even when the storm comes, God is our refuge. That is a comfort but do you ever wonder exactly what that means? Some folks in Haiti right now have lost everything - homes, families, livelihood. Do you ever wonder how God comforts them? How do they experience God as a refuge? It may be that are just overwhelmed by a supernatural sense of peace. But maybe not. Maybe they only experience God's comfort when God's people step up and bring it to them. If someone needs God in their life, sometimes the best we can do is just sit with them. Whether we realize it or not, we are God's presence in someone else's life all the time.

We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed ~ 2 Cor 4:8-9
Ultimately, God is there for us and will not abandon us. It sure seems like it sometimes, but the reality is that no matter what pain, no matter what hardship, no matter even if we die, God is there for us, waiting to welcome us into an eternity where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Rev 21, also check the end of Romans 8).