Natural Disasters and God
They keep on happening, don’t they? Last Fall, we saw hurricanes threaten our country and impact thousands and thousands of people. Since then, there have been a number of shootings in our country, even one at a church that left 26 people dead. By the time, you read this, it’ll probably be something else.
They seem to keep on happening, don’t they? I don’t know if it’s because we live in this age of social media, and the chaos of this world is thrown into our faces more often and more quickly. Or perhaps what Jesus says is happening – that this world is become a more violent, a more hostile, a more sinful place (read Matthew 24). These things keep on happening, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
So what do we make of this? Where is God in all of this? If God truly loves us, why does he allow such atrocities and disasters to affect our world, to affect the people we love, and to affect us personally.
We see a struggle and mystery there, don’t we? We know God’s promises that he is active in his creation, that he rules over all things for the good of his people, and that he knows everything that will happen in our world. But the Lord is not the author of evil. It is not the Lord’s will for evil and sin to happen. So we get taken back to a garden where everything once was perfect and good until the very first humans reached out and grabbed something God did not want for them. In that instant, sin entered this world. Not only did it make a mess of their relationship with the Lord, it made a mess of ours.
C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain once wrote that pain is God’s megaphone to rouse this world. While the Lord is not the cause of evil, the Lord uses sin and the effects of a sinful world. How does he do that? He uses them to grab the world’s attention and tell us that something is not right about the world we live in. These disasters and problems signify a much deeper problem, a deeper issue that affects all of us. Our own sin. I can think to all those times in my life where I’ve chosen something else instead of the Lord. I can think to all those times in my life where I’ve chosen to do evil instead of good. When I recall my sin, I know I need something this world can’t offer. I need Jesus. What do we see in Jesus? Grace and mercy. Grace and mercy for the world who did not want him. Grace and mercy for the world who rebelled against God. Grace and mercy even for me. Every problem. Every hardship. Every disaster is a loud call for me to repent of my sin and find the greatest comfort in the Savior who loved me before the creation of this world and who gave his life for me.
Sometimes even as a pastor I get way too attached to this world. I find myself enjoying the blessings of family. I find myself binge-watching Season 2 of Stranger Things on Netflix. I find myself hanging out with friends. We thank the Lord for blessings like these, but so often, I get too attached to this world and the blessings of this world. I want to hold on to those blessings too strongly. And so what does the Lord do? With every hardship, with every pain, with every difficulty, he’s prying my hands off this world. He’s taking my eyes off this world. And he puts my hands on something better – the Savior whose love for me is endless. He refocuses my eyes on something better – a perfect home with my Savior in heaven.
My dear friends, we don’t always know why God allows every disaster, every act of evil, every hardship. Be we do know in every one of those things, there is a Savior who came into this world to rescue us from sin and death and who guides his people through every dark valley until he will bring us safely home. May Jesus’ love and peace give you comfort during the darks of this world.
