A tragic day befell our nation yesterday. A fellow student gunned down over fifty students and faculty, killing 32 before ending his own life. The nation lies in shock and grief.
Like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the post-Christmas tsunami, great loss of life is inevitably followed by lingering questions. Where was God? Why did he allow such evil? Although we know that such tragedy and evil have been present in the world since recorded history, our hearts are pierced when we experience it anew.
Such questions can only be asked if we presuppose the existence of God. If there were no overarching moral authority and if there we no moral framework etched into our consciences, then these questions would be irrelevant. We would be left with a random world without moral order in which each person's actions and each natural occurrence were simply meaningless events. Our response to such events would consist only of personal opinion stemming from self-created philosophy. But our honest and stark crying out at such evil and tragedy only reinforce that universal moral consciousness that resides in us all.
My response of faith is that God sometimes allows things that He hates and that grieve him for reasons we may not fully understand. I find it undeniable in Scripture that God not only abhors the taking of innocent life, but he has set his law in concrete, so to speak, that strongly forbids it. God's revealed moral law reveals his moral character. We are to be kind and loving to our fellow man. We are to be merciful to the poor and needy. We are to be patient and forgiving toward our enemy. We are to be generous to our neighbor. God's law reveals His inherent goodness.
The big issue is how we ask "Why?" in light of evil and tragedy. One way is from faith the other from unbelief and disdain. The believer asks "Why, O Lord" because he sees a conflict between God's goodness and the evil that was allowed. He trusts that God is good so he earnestly desires to reconcile the conflict. To him God says, be patient, it will one day be reconciled. My purpose will be brought to light. There will be a day a reckoning. There will be a day when all wrong is righted. There will be a day when evil is conquered. There will be a day when God's goodness will be clearly and ultimately vindicated.
The question asked from unbelief is done so to justify that unbelief. It is done in a "see, I told you so" mindset. It is seen as yet another reason to distance oneself from God and embrace the meaninglessness of existence. It serves only to reinforce hostility and indifference toward the Creator.
Such tragedies as witnessed yesterday are a test of faith. Do we really trust that God is good in light on evil?
That's how I see it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment