Prayin Thru The Quake

Sorry for the amount of time that’s passed since my last entry. We’ve been busy – and really blessed! First of all, I hope you’re aware of the earthquake that has hit Sichuan. Death toll is really skyrocketing. I know that investing emotions in things like disasters on the other side of the world is not something we do often – it’s too far away, we’re too desensitized, and it’s too painful to connect to something you feel you can’t really fix. But I hope you’ll spend a little bit of time in prayer for the area – between this and the cyclone in Myanmar, it’s seems like one disaster after another this week.

A student asked me on Sunday why disasters happen all over the world. Actually she asked if anyone could know why. I suppose some people could venture a guess or two, but when it comes right down to it, that’s one of the fundamental differences between God and man. We can’t separate God’s omniscience and His omnipotence. Take Job – though everyone says that the topic of the book of Job is “why do the righteous suffer?” – at the end of the book, Job doesn’t find out. Apparently the answer is, “None of your business.” But it leads Job to repentance and humility before God. Which is about all the “why” that concerns us, I imagine. As if we could even understand the intricacies of God’s plan if He did condescend to explain it!

All that to say – how to pray through a tragedy like this on the other side of the world? Certainly pray for them physically – there is more death and tragedy in those places than most of us will ever come near to. But how to pray spiritually? Pray that many will end up at the feet of Jesus, like Job on his face before the God that knows the “why” of all our deepest pains and bitterest tears. Not repentant because the tragedy was a punishment for their godlessness (you’d think Job would teach us better than to say something like that) – but repentant for the same reason that a person living in the security and quiet of an American suburb has to be repentant. Because we are the sinful Creation, and He the loving Creator. Who does what He does because He knows what He knows.