Seth Barnes Jan 18, 2010 7:00 PM

How God feels about Haiti

God weeps for his children. He sees the horror they're experiencing in Haiti and he feels a grief that human words cannot describe. He sees the woman ...

Subscribe


God weeps for his children. He sees the horror they're experiencing in Haiti and he feels a grief that human words cannot describe. He sees the woman holding her crushed child and he feels the sorrow coursing through her being. He wants to hold her in the same way.

The sovereignty of God is a mystery that seems at odds with a tragedy of this scale. As humans we struggle to explain how a good and omnipotent God can allow it.

Worship is the proper response, not speculation or theology on the cheap. For a Christian leader to speculate on national television, for example, about the linkage between the country's leaders' pact with the devil centuries ago and this calamity is irresponsible and grossly insensitive. It's an anthropomorphic syllogism akin to Peter asking Jesus for permission to build booths on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Too often we Americans let our rational minds spin with speculative and convoluted proof-texting. And I want to say, "Can we just stop having to explain this God of ours in ways that bring our tiny minds a shabby and evanescent peace? Can we just let his response be the one that he took four chapters to give Job* starting with, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?"

God help us when we go through our similar tragedy one day, be it through cancer or a car accident. We will have a choice, to bow at the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and ask "Why?" Or, to bow at the tree of Life and worship. Let's choose the latter, knowing that our God weeps for his children in Haiti.

*Job 38-41

Comments


captcha
Comment created and will be displayed once approved.

Related Blogs

Ramseys shows us his pain

Ramseys shows us his pain

Here's a blog from my son in Haiti. As we dig through the rubble, we uncover stu...

By Seth Barnes
When your house in ruins, what do you do?

When your house in ruins, what do you do?

Here's a man who has a sad but wonderful story. His house collapsed, yet his wif...

By Seth Barnes
Report on Haiti microfinance loans

Report on Haiti microfinance loans

My son is in Haiti today and my thoughts drift there with him. When I was in Hai...

By Seth Barnes

Related Races (3)

Nepal | Alumni | August 2026

Nepal | Alumni | August 2026

Gap Year | 9 Months | August 2026

Gap Year | 9 Months | August 2026

Gap Year | 9 Months | August 2026

Gap Year | 9 Months | August 2026

Next article

"A thousand children killed in this school"