Disaster Relief

It is when disasters happen like hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and tornadoes that people often begin to question God and God’s role in the suffering that goes on in the world; people question whether God caused it to happen among other things. My faith tells me that God does not cause bad things to happen. Rather, God hurts when God sees His children experiencing pain and suffering. God weeps when people experience loss and sadness.

We are God’s creation and as such we belong to the natural world. Well-known Lutheran theologian Martin Marty writes, “Since we belong to the created or natural world, we are subject to all that goes with it, including birth and death, springtime and autumn, sunshine and shadow, some lives knowing outrageously more of the latter than of the former. And as we belong to created nature, we also live in a world in which accidents happen, unexplained good and bad things occur.” Unfortunately, pain and death is a part of life. Yet we have hope through Christ’s death and resurrection. God promises ultimate healing and eternal life to all who believe and while we are here on earth, we know that God does wondrous things, including bringing good out of bad.

I will always remember a conversation on a trip I took to Haiti when I was an intern at Lord of Life. One of the Haitian translators said to our group that our presence there gives them hope that God has not forgotten Haiti. Indeed, it is God who gives hope. It is God who gives strength and peace, and God the Spirit who works in all helping people to respond with love for others. We can help by making donations to help the people affected, praying for them, and continuing to lift the needs up in the world of those affected by disaster. God works through each of us to bring healing.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Percy