Our Attempts at Control

Sept 11th (NY) Jan 11th (Haiti) and March 11th (Japan).... Weird. Luke 21:10-11, Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes', famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven. 'Jesus says for behold I come quickly.”  So ask yourself, are you ready? Sad to say, many won't repost this!! (Facebook post)

'What God does is God's business. But I'll tell you this...there's a message being sent. 'And that is, "Hey you know that stuff we're doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it." I'm just saying.  (Glenn Beck)

The events in Japan last Friday shattered any illusions that we might have that we’re in control of our world.  We build earthquake-proof buildings and large sea-walls in the hopes that we can control the forces of nature, but when the earth’s plates slip our feeble efforts are for nothing.  The rushing waters of the tsunami flattened buildings and tossed aside all that people thought could stand firm.   It was a humbling weekend for humanity.  I’m still shocked as I watch video of the disaster.  Nature unleashed a power that we could do nothing about.

It didn’t take long for people to try to regain a sense of control.  The Facebook post making the rounds focuses on dates.  Since three tragedies happened on the 11^th of the month and since the 11^th verse of Luke 21 talks about fearful events, OBVIOUSLY something is going on here.  OBVIOUSLY God is trying to tell us something…right?  The fact that other earthquakes (i.e. Christchurch, New Zealand) have happened on other dates is ignored. The fact that other Scripture verses speak of suffering don’t seem to matter.   Posts like this one attempt to take a seemingly random world and bring order to it.  They try to say, “See, God knew this would happen all along.  We just didn’t notice the warning signs.”   

Let’s be honest.  A few coincidences mean nothing!

Glenn Beck tried to do a very similar thing.  While he talked around the issue for a while, he definitely implied that the earthquake came as ‘a message’ that we should pay attention to.  The assumption was that God caused the tragedy to teach people a lesson.  Bad things can’t just happen.  There MUST be a reason for them.  Once again the attempt is to gain control over a seemingly random world.  If tragedies happen for a reason then we have the capacity to live good lives and keep them from happening, right?

Hogwash!

This past weekend showed us that we don’t have control, no matter what we think.  We cannot predict when or where the earth’s plates will slip.  There is little that we can do to avoid the disasters that fall upon us.   We live in a broken world where bad things happen.  We live in a world where earthquakes and tsunamis kill tens of thousands where we least expect it. We live in a world where cancer strikes and viruses infect, seemingly at random. 

In the midst of this chaos, we proclaim a God who walks with God’s people THROUGH the tragedies.  Jesus shattered the illusion that we can avoid all pain by living a good and moral life.  Jesus lived a life of perfection, yet He chose to endure the pain of the world on a cross.  We proclaim a savior who lives among us in good times and in bad, in joy and in sorrow, in life and in death.   

Instead of looking back and trying to bring order to the chaos (an impossible and arrogant task), let us look ahead and ask how God might use us to care for those who are suffering.