I suppose it’s one of those cases when if you say it then it happens. The other day I wrote about Psalms 47 where whoever wrote it says that God can cause “mountains to fall into the heart of the sea” which I surmised would cause a tsunami. Now we’ve got a tsunami that hit Japan and is now hitting Hawaii. My dear friends Valerie and Gordon live in Hawaii and they’ve saved my ass more than once so I checked her Face Book page as have other friends but there is no news save the gloom and doom of the news channels.
You have to ask yourself why?
Why do things like this happen? I mean I understand the science of it all. There is earthquake because the earth shifts itself and causes a burp under the ocean which makes a big wave. Living by the sea I notice waves eventually make their way to shore and there you have it. For the most part we love it! Especially the surfers!
Save when it’s a big shift, a big burp and a wave that is so huge than it’s given a new name. Tsunami!
We understand the how. It’s the why question that baffles us and it’s the one that we look to God to answer.
Why are there tsunamis that kill people who are just having a day at the beach? Why does a massive wave knock out the power of countries that are already struggling to survive or those that are abundant in wealth? Why do they cause the stock market to fall affecting people in Kansas who’ve never seen a wave in their life?
“Why” is the second holiest prayer that we send to God on an almost daily basis?
The first is the most basic of prayers. When we see a tsunami coming, or the power goes out when that’s the last in the world that we need or the stock market falls and we lose forty percent of our wealth overnight we utter the same prayer … “Oh God”!
Then we wait.
And we keep waiting.
God’s not big on direct responses when that’s precisely what we want the most.
So we wait.
Then other people start answering the question on God’s behalf. “Those people deserved it because they’re sinners!”
“God is sending a message that homosexuality is the cause of America’s moral decline!”
“It was bound to happen when women started taking birth control pills, put on shoes and abandoned the kitchen.”
And swear to God, there are these people who get television time to say stupid stuff like this! Pompous asses presume to speak for God. Then people desperate for answers to the why question believe them. That’s how fundamentalism, racism, sexism and discrimination are born.
But God keeps quiet.
So we ponder the answer to the why questions.
Why did she leave me? Why am I in a marriage that gives me nothing? Why did my son who I love more than anything grow up to be gay? Why did I lose my job when I gave them everything that I have? Why did I lose my house? Why is he so hateful when I’m just trying the best I know how to try? Why did she get pregnant? Why is this happening to me?
Why?
DAMMIT! WHY!
And God is quiet.
And the silence is deafening.
Then the answer comes when we least expect it.
It is what it is.
The bad comes with the good.
And there is far more good than there is bad.
But we focus on the bad because it stuns us. It consumes too many of us. And we all believe that God would never allow such things to happen.
But they do.
So I’ve come to believe that when God created life … it is what it is. There is good and bad. There is far more good than bad. But there is bad. I’ve had my share. You have too.
But it’s life we’ve got. I’m holding to this gift as long as I can! And praying for people who can’t! Or who no longer have it!
