Death

Time for a more serious post. Sometimes God throws things our way that are tough to swallow. Sometimes they on a personal level challenge who we know Him to be. This devastation to hit the eastern part of the world is one of those times. How could God let something so devastating and kill so many people? Women, children? Horrible dictators often won't allow that to happen. Why God? Yeah . . . my mind is filled with thoughts of "God allows freewill to happen, and there are consequences when freewill went wild" or "God allows the world to unfold without constantly intervening without consistency" or "It is the fall." They all sound good, but I have to admit - they're not working for me. More than 40,000 people are dead. That's twice the number of people who lived in Defiance - the town where I grew up. That's twenty times the number of people that went to my college. That's too many people for God just to sit passively by and watch happern. Why didn't he act? He parted the Red Sea, why not a barrier to protect these unprepared sunbathers? It doesn't make any sense. It gives me no peace or comfort, but makes me question stronger who God really is. Who is he really? How could he let this happen? If he could stop it, why didn't he? Why did he create 40,000 people in order to destroy them with a mighty display of water? Why are their millions of people suffering due to physical pain and the loss of a loved one? Why are thier newly orphaned children? Why? Why? Why? I do not have these answers. More Christians should be answering them. Devestations like this should wake Christians from their bland and boring faith, and make them realize that the claims they are making are controversial and life affecting. This makes church become more than chuch for me. I beleive in a God who has all the power - enough power to stop a tidal wave from wiping out tens of thousands. I also believe in a God who chose not to. That's a tough backdrop to singing next Sunday, "Praise thou, Great Jehovah."