5th January, 2005

JANICE ROGERS
ASSIST News Service

East Texas

Just over a week ago, a giant wall of water crashed into the too fragile coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and eight other nations. The tsunami tides ripped 150,000 people out to sea, leaving survivors and all the rest of us to cry out, "Why, God?"

One image above all others is seared into my mind: a young Malay-looking father tenderly holding the body of his dead son. The little boy looked so much like my grandson Daniel that it took my breath away. I know the question that pounded in his heart. People of every religion had the same cry, "Why, God?"

Some years ago I attended the memorial service for the singer, Keith Green, who had died in a fiery plane crash in East Texas along with ten others. The elderly Christian statesman, Leonard Ravenhill had been asked to give the main message. He stood there and told how many had been phoning him after the crash, asking why God had allowed Keith and the other young people to die. Ravenhill said, "I don't know. And any minister who is honest will say the same thing. I don't know."

I don't know lots of things. I don't know why my friend Connie has bone cancer and is fighting a painful battle for her life. I don't know why my friend Becky lost her teenaged son in a car crash last fall. I don't know the answers to these questions, but I do know one thing. I know who God is. I know what He is like. And I trust Him even when I don't understand and even when I don't get answers.

Jesus Himself didn't offer easy answers to these kind of questions. He referred to one disaster in Luke 13:4, the collapse of the tower in Siloam which killed 18 people. He asked the rhetorical question, "Were these people more guilty than those who survived?" No, they weren't, Jesus implied. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Another time, Jesus stood at the grave of His friend Lazarus and cried. Have you ever wondered, why did Jesus cry? If you've read the rest of the story you know He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. So why did He cry?

I believe Jesus cried because His friend's death reminded Him of all the pain and death in the world. Pain and death which God never planned, but which entered into earth when man chose to sin. All of creation is groaning, it says in Romans 8:22. Nature itself is in pain. It is not as beautiful and well ordered as when Jesus created it. Man's disobedience marred the physical creation. So bad things happen. Cells turn cancerous, turning healthy bones into painful, crumbling things. Young men drive in cars and lose control on curving roads. Earthquakes break the earth open and giant waves wash people away. And Jesus cries.

The most painful period in my life was watching my parents' slow decline into ill health and impaired mental capacities. It hurt so much. One day I was over at their home, trying to help out despite Mom's emotional turmoil, which caused her to lash out in her pain. It became too much. I rushed home and collapsed into my husband's arms weeping. He just held me.

Then with Jimmy's arms around me I began to say something sort of unusual. I began to repeat the Apostles' Creed - part of the liturgy at our Methodist Church. Between my sobs I declared, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord, who was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, on the third day He rose from the dead...."

As I continued those ancient words of belief it was like driving a stake in the ground and holding onto it. I didn't know why my parents and my whole family were going through this pain. But I knew who God was and I knew He was good.

When waves of pain and doubt crash over us, threatening to sweep us away, we can hold onto one thing that will never move. Jesus Christ and His love for us. Who knows what pain lies ahead, what natural or man-made (the cruelest of all) disasters? I don't know. But I do know the One I can hold to, Who will also be holding onto me.

Janice Rogers and her husband Jim have served with Youth With A Mission since 1964.

This article was first published by ASSIST news service - www.assistnews.net.