Give us Faith So We'll Be Safe: A Theological and Pastoral Response to the Tragedy in Haiti

The cross of Jesus is the place to take your inexplicable pain.

Minutes after the I-35 bridge collapsed several years ago, one woman began to pray. Then others joined her. The image was amazing: people calling on a sovereign and a good God in the face of catastrophe, just like broken-hearted Haitians singing to Christ about His amazing grace in the face of unimaginable loss. Christ and His love is our only hope in such times.

Finally, when horror like the horror of Haiti happens, when tragedy strikes in your own life:

III.  Seek Jesus' Teaching in Your Own Life: Examine Yourself as You Seek Meaning in the Midst of Despair

Jeremiah did this. Jeremiah wept with those who wept. He rested in God's attributes. Then he said, "Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD" (Lam. 3:40).

It is very much like Jesus in the New Testament.[4] There was an atrocity brought to Jesus to see what He would do with it. Note as I read again that Jesus answers like a good rabbi with a question. He knows they see life as "sin and get zapped -- do good and be blessed," but life is more complicated than that. So Jesus ups the ante and brings up another case -- another calamity. It is not a bridge collapsing but a tower. He tells us clearly that these did not die because they were worse sinners. He does not explain, but He calls us to see that calamity and tragedy in this life become visible reminders of what happens when we ignore the brevity of life and that there are eternal consequences to our relationship with Jesus Christ today. Jesus is calling for each and every one of us to examine our lives and our relationship with Him as we witness bridges collapsing. What do we see?

First, we live in a world under the influence of sin. Sin has enslaved all of creation to the principle of entropy (Rom. 8:19-23). Sin affects even innocent lives, and we can be alive one moment and in eternity the next.

Secondly, we must be ready in every season of life to leave this world and meet God. The earthquake that hit Haiti last about 30 seconds. In that time, hundreds of thousands of souls left this planet; but even as I speak, even more all over the world suddenly will pass from this world into the presence of the Creator. Are we ready to go? For the brevity of life is ever before us, beckoning, calling, crying that we turn to the Lord while there is time. Jesus also calls for us to repent, to examine ourselves and to turn to Him.

For God will punish unrepentant sin. Again, it is not a time to point fingers in judgment at people Haiti. It is not time to think we can explain it all. It is a time to pray for them, weep for them and realize again the brevity of life and that we soon will stand before God. It is a time to recall that every horror here reminds us of the horror of being separated forever from God. It is a time for us to turn again to God and repent.