The pictures and stories trickling out of Mississippi and Louisiana are simply awesome in the most fearful aspect of that word! One reporter blandly opined, "this is certainly a reminder of the power of Nature." I beg to differ. This is surely a reminder of the wonderful world that God made and of His awesome ways. Offended, are you? Does the thought that He knew the path of Hurricane Katrina make you angry? For me it is different. The disaster only deepens my wonder! I could not help but say, "What a God, how fearsome, how amazing, and how wonderful His ways."
No, I am not rejoicing in the suffering of those who lived in the path of the storm. On ABC's Good Morning, America, I watched residents of Gulfport and New Orleans interviewed this AM. I wept at their confusion and sorrow. Compassion well up in me as I thought what it must be like to look around and see what you have put together in life swept away or destroyed. I cannot even begin to feel what one man was feeling as he described how his house split in half in the ferocity of the storm and his wife was torn from his grasp and swallowed in the muddy flood! And I know God was there. But, then, why didn't He step in to stop it from happening? "Lord, increase our faith!" is all I can say.
It is pleasant to rejoice in the awesomeness of God when the sun rises beautifully or as we stand on the mountain and drink in the splendor of the landscape. If we praise Him then, should we not praise Him when the storm blows as well? If He is the Maker of the sunrise, is He not also the Maker of the winds? This is a terrible and wonderful truth. My mind asks, "But how could a good God allow such suffering? How does this fit with my understanding that He is a giver of good gifts?" It stretches our faith. This I affirm, that He is at work to accomplish His purposes - both in the sunshine and the storm, in those things we receive gladly and those things that break our hearts.
We be exceedingly careful about jumping to conclusions in the stormy times: "I am blessed because.... she suffers because...." Rather, in humility, we need to acknowledge the majesty of the Creator, and seek to know Him, to walk in His ways, thanking Him that He chooses, at His own impulse, to love us. Then, from that humility, we reach out to give our help, to share love, with those whose lives are broken by the storms.
The Psalm declares:
Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth,
sing praise to the Lord, Selah
to him who rides the ancient skies above,
who thunders with mighty voice.
Proclaim the power of God, whose majesty is over Israel,
whose power is in the skies.
You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary;
the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.
Praise be to God! Psalm 68:32-35
_______________________
Oh, Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder,
consider all Thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
"How great Thou art! How great Thou art!"
1 comment:
I wanted to thank you for the courage you showed in writing this article
the way you did. You did not flinch from proclaiming God's sovereignty
in the world. You called the path of the storm "His ways." You said God
was there when the man lost his wife and you asked the hard question
about why evil exists vis a vis the goodness of God. You didn't say that
God was passively standing by helpless against the elements. You yielded
to your (our) limitations of understanding but you didn't give up on
your faith.
You praised Him for the storm as well as the sunrise and said they were
both from his hand. You said He chooses, at His own impulse, to love us.
You said so many right, biblical, hard yet compassionate things. I love
your heart of compassion. Thank you for your tears.
I thought of Isa. 45:7 "I form the light and create darkness, I bring
prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things." And Ps.
115:3 "Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him." And Eph. 1:11
"...according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity
with the purpose of his will." And Job 2:10 "Shall we accept good from
God, and not trouble?" And Rom. 11:33 "Oh, the depth of the riches of
the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his
paths beyond tracing out!" Yet our God is the God of love and grace. It
causes me to tremble, tremble tremble..
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