I woke this morning with a heavy heart. The toll continues to rise in Australia – now 171 confirmed dead and the arsonists who started many of the fires will be accused of mass murder according to the Prime Minister. Whole communities have been completely wiped out by the raging fires.
The question that many are asking of course is where is God in the midst of this horror. And I must confess there are no easy answers. I certainly do not believe that God wants disasters like this to occur, nor do I believe that it is punishment for our sins. More than anything I believe that God is present in the grief and the suffering of families who have lost everything, including loved ones in the fires . God cares deeply and intimately for all human kind. God is with us in our grief and wants to comfort us in our anguish.
Last night Tom and I talked to our good friends Gary and Ev Heard, Baptist pastors in Melbourne Victoria. They are in the process of putting together a team of chaplains who can go into the devastated communities later this week to grieve with and comfort those who are affected. In their actions I see the presence of a God who grieves with us in the midst of all our pains. I see God too in the dedication of the many hundred of volunteer fire fighters who are risking their lives to protect other peoples’ lives and property. Such self sacrifice definitely bears the fingerprints of God. Others have responded by opening their homes, by sending clothes and blankets and food. Still others have responded with gifts of money. All of these responses come, I beleive from the heart of God which resides deep within all of us.
There is no way that we can understand when disaster strikes but we can look for and encourage the presence of God in its midst. In that spirit I would ask you once again to pray for those affected by these fires
- Pray for the protection of fire fighters and police who are seeking to get the fires under control
- Pray for those who have lost loved ones and homes
- Pray for my friends Gary and Ev Heard and others like them who seek to provide spiritual and emotional support at this time
- Pray that God would have mercy and send rain to help extinguish the fires.
Filed under: Pain & tragedy, Prayer, news | Tagged: Australian bushfires, BBC, Gary Heard, grief, news, Prayer
we ask this question every time there is massive tragedy, from 9/11 to hurricanes and other such natural disasters and senseless wars. equally we ask these same questions on individual experiences through suicides and other deeply sad tragedies. for me i ask the question simultaneously to looking at the cross of Christ. this for me is one of the strongest at-one-ment events God promises…”I am with you always even to the end of the age.” God is present where there is suffering. at one level it is tragically meaningless and at another it is divinely reclaimed as the very dwelling place of God identifying with the deepest struggle of humanity and creation. these are ways i don’t claim to understand up here in my head, but only through trusting what i’ve learned by listening to the way of Jesus.
PS – by the way, i visited your home a couple years ago with karen ward when i was with her in june 2007 doing an EmMersion event when you held the Hawaiian gathering. i love and appreciate greatly what you’re all doing, very helpful and inspiring. helpful lenten journey suggestion too.
David,
I very much appreciate your comments. Every episode of suffering is indeed divinely reclaimed. It always amazes me when I go back to Australia and see where bushfires swept through a few years ago – it is often hard to tell because the eucalyptus trees have regenerated. I am always reminded that for there to be resurrection there must first be death. Our understanding of this is so limited and of course in this day and age people want a life without pain or suffering. Yet it is I believe in the midst of suffering that we grow the most. Without suffering we will never become truly human.
David, thanks for that posting. I found myself feeling overwhelmed and almost mute as I began to pray for the people there, and ultimately found myself asking God to ‘be with them, to grant mercy, to provide all that was needed for them and all concerned, to bring justice for them, and to comfort’ in a time when comfort probably seemed far away. In the news in NZ, it showed many of the people grieving and coming together, and all I could ask was that God would be in the midst of them, sharing in their brokeness.
Thinking along Christine’s lines, in this, there is hope. Hope of resurrection. Which as Christians, we cling to.