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IN THE LIGHT OF THE TSUNAMI AND ITS TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES, THE VIOLENCE IN IRAQ AND SUDAN AND OTHER PLACES, FR CHRIS THOMAS REFLECTS ON SUFFERING AND THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE.
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Where
is God in all this?|
That might seem trite to some people, almost a panacea, but we have to face the fact that the human mind cannot understand everything about the world, about humanity and about God. I'm taken back to the book of Job, the Bible's response to the problem of human suffering. As I read it, 1 see that there arc huge issues that simply have to be left in the hands of God. Like Job, I don't know everything, I can't understand everything. The question for me is whether or not, in the face of tragedy, will I still choose to trust God? "Will I still choose to trust God?" Will I trust in the God who in Jesus became one of us and who entered into the human condition, one who loves and suffers with us? Will 1 trust in Jesus who weeps with us and who laughs with us? Will Itrust in Jesus who suffered on Calvary, and yet in that suffering brought an end to death for ever? Many years ago a friend of mine's twelve year old son, who had severe learning and physical difficulties, died on the operating table. This was after a baby others had died just a couple of years earlier from sudden death syndrome. She was taken to some friends who tried to look after her. As the news broke amongst our community, one after the other, we came to sec and stand with her and her family, in the face of their pain which was enormous. "Faith doesn't give us a short cut through emotional hurt" One day her social worker came to see her. As she left the bedroom, where my friend lay almost inconsolable, she bumped into one of our community and through her tears said, "How can you possibly believe in God at a time like this? " The response was simple yet profound. "It's precisely because we believe in God that we can cope at times like this." Faith doesn't take away the pain and the sense of despair. It doesn't give us a short cut through the emotional hurt but maybe, just maybe, it gives us hope to begin again, and to face life with bravery. Sheila Cassidy, once wrote a book called, "Sharing the Darknesss", in which she said that faith is the willingness to outstare the darkness. I find that quite extraordinary. And yet, time and time again, I meet people who have had the most incredible burdens to deal with, who are willing to trust and believe in the goodness of God. Throughout Asia stories will begin to emerge of people beginning again, trusting that somehow the reins of life can be taken up again and people will begin to smile again. "A God who helps me find meaning" It's so easy to forget the challenge of being a follower of Jesus, to trust in the face of darkness, that light will come; to trust in love rather than in hatred, and to believe in goodness rather than evil. It's so easy to give in to the secular world that tells us that there can be no loving God, when people suffer in the way that they do. It's so easy to rage at God and blame God whereas faith tells us that God is there in the midst of it all. I don't have answers to the Tsunami, or to the
floods that happened in the North of England, or to the individual
traumas that we all go through, but I want to believe more fully in
a God who is with me in the midst of all that I do go through. Not
a God who necessarily gives me answers to why things happen, but a
God who helps me to find meaning in life, and who invites me to trust
that there is more, always more, even when the darkness threatens
to overwhelm me.
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