On waking this morning, my mind went to those in Libya, Japan, and countless other places where people have spent the last ours either without sleep, or with a growing sense of fear and even panic.
When I checked the international news, I found conflicting reports on wind directions, radiation levels and actual conditions in Northeast Japan.
Then my thoughts went back to a few days ago just after the tragic events of an earthquake and tsunami had begun to unfold. I remember an eye-witness report of someone who described how she had heard all around her people asking the question, “Why, what have we done to deserve this?” I remember the witness expressing such deep sadness that already stricken people would add to their terrible plight with thoughts of personal or national guilt.
This morning, I momentarily wondered whether to admit that from thousands of miles away I’ve caught myself having similar thoughts. After posting recently on a God powerful and present enough to be involved in “the roll of the dice,” I wondered whether it is better to say such disasters have nothing to do with God, or that these things have everything to do with the Divine hand…or to say nothing at all.
My thoughts turned to someone who recently told me about how he would spend time with a friend who, in the later stages of Lou Gehrig’s disease, had lost the ability to speak. My friend said he would take his friend to a cafe’, help his friend to a table, order a cold drink for him, put a straw in his glass so that he could drink, and then sit for a half hour together saying nothing at all.
My thoughts also go to that day when Jesus was told about incidents that involved a tragic loss of life in Galilee and Jerusalem. Referring to such news, he seems to have anticipated “the why question”. So he asked those with him whether they thought it made sense to assume that those who died were worse sinners than anyone else. Then he answered his own question by saying something like, “No, it’s not about someone deserving a tragic fate more than anyone else. Unless you have a change of heart toward your sin and God, you will end up likewise” (Luke 13:1-5).
I take from this that the “why questions” we ask in the middle of our own loss– or in the face of the loss of others– are not necessarily wrong. The problem is that, as was also the case in the pained conversation of Job and his friends, our natural answer is apt to be more than wrong. It is sure to make matters worse… for hearts that can only find comfort in the silent presence of those who love them… as the always present God who showed how much he cared… by knowing when to lovingly sound the alarm… and when to “quietly” die for us.
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