Two major hurricanes have now caused incredible loss of life & property damage. Tragedy rips the veneer off our neat, comfortable worlds to remind us how vulnerable & dependent we are. But we shouldn’t presume that such tragedies are “acts of God” as the insurance companies claim. Bad things happen because we live in a fallen world.
Ever since our ancestors were cast from the Garden of Eden, the world has been under the curse of sin. Life isn’t fair & we don’t always get what we deserve here & now. The wise writer of Ecclesiastes pondered this 3 millennia ago: “There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve” (Ecc. 8:14).
Two mistakes are typically made regarding disaster. One is to think the good things that happen to me prove that I’m good, and the other is that the bad things that happen to me prove that I’m bad. That’s just wrong. In Luke 13, Jesus was talking about two tragedies that happened in His time. He pointed to some people who were worshipping at the temple but were brutally slaughtered. Then He referred to people who died when a tower fell on them. Were these tragedies the result of their sins? He asked, “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4-5). Jesus also reminds that God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45).
Not everything that happens is God’s will. When I hear someone say that a tragedy must have been God’s will, the theological term for that is “hooey.” Did God allow it to happen? Yes, because He is sovereign. Could He have prevented or stopped it? Of course, & we’ll never know how many times He does just that. But did God make it or want it to happen? Not likely, but because of sin’s spiritual entwinement in this physical universe, He permits things that He doesn’t want. God’s will is not always done in this world, which is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Tragedy forces the issue of faith. Some lose faith or continue to grow harder in their rejection of God, while others cling tighter to faith. Though all of us may question how can we trust God when something like this happens, many of us realize: How can we not? How do you face something like this without faith in the Lord, hope for the future, & the love of a church family? I often tell suffering & grieving people that life’s hard enough with Christ, I don’t know how people do it without Him. Though skeptics frequently say that Christianity is a refuge for those seeking to escape reality, even they, in crisis, desire for God to help because they’re brutally shown they’re not in control & life is very tenuous & fragile.
While I can never give anyone a definitive answer for why bad things happen, I do assure people that God never intended for the world to be like this. It is human choice that has resulted in rebellion & consequentially in all kinds of pain & loss. God also promises to go through these hardships with us. He sees, cares, & wants to comfort you in tragedy. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Ps. 34:18). And He promises that it will not always be like this—He will one day do away with all that is heart-wrenching (Rev. 21).
You have to decide when you go through tragedies, “Am I going to allow this to make me a bitter person, or a better person?” People who fall into bitterness, anger & self-pity may cry out, “My life is over!” But I’ve seen people who had the worst experiences in life, with every right to whine, instead maintain a positive attitude. And then I’ve seen other people who seem to have practically problem-free lives complain about everything.
Faith is not pretending everything’s great when it’s clearly not. The only way to overcome some problems in life is to choose to focus on God’s goodness. I would suggest billions of people in this world would love to trade you their problems. You may have thought you had it bad until you saw what those poor folks in the paths of those hurricanes experienced.
Newscasters talk about the loss of buildings & the damage to the economy, but then point out that nothing compares to the loss of dads, daughters, brothers, & friends. All those things that we think are so important ultimately just aren’t valuable. Those who are here today may not be here tomorrow. So we need to keep short accounts and have no regrets. Some need to make relationships right; some need to give hugs or be more compassionate; some need to take a long, hard look at where their energies are focused. Jesus said, “Life is not measured by how much one owns” (Luke 12:15). Disasters have a way of pointing out what really matters & what doesn’t.