I can not stop thinking about Haiti...I have never visited there, however, I have so many students and peers from there my heart sinks every time I get an email update.
Yesterday's email was from a student who just discovered that her daddy died.
This dear one was alerting her faculty why she would not be in class this week. ..... Think about it...this kind of sorrow very few people have a grid for to contend and process something like this...my heart is aching for this young person still in their late teens living in here in the US...close... but yet so far...
In fact how do we each begin to process all the imagery we are seeing on the news??? It has caused me to wonder... did Jesus' disciples go through the same shock, sorrow and confusion when he was killed? Everything they thought to be true was put on the line and called into question. Did they wonder how did things seem to go so terribly wrong? Did they begin to question their faith...did they question IF they had made a mistake in following him? Did you know that there was even an earth quake at the moment of his death...
The truth is Everything - yes everything bad that happens to us can seem like an earth quake, are not the results are the same???
....bad things can turn our world upside down. We all have had things happen to us that demolish our trust or our faith... we also no one is unscathed in life ..no one.... like the images of Haiti's destruction...we all know people, may be even ourselves that have been traumatized by illness, death of a loved one, financial strain, divorce, abuse.. (1 in 4 girls are victims before age 18 and STD' statistics are no more encouraging ( between age 15 and 24 ) over 19 MILLION new cases were reported in 2008 !!! So what do we do???
It made me ponder this morning as I was setting aside time to reflect... do I question Him too? Do I, give up hope or get angry... when things don't work out the way I had hoped?
I suppose like Jesus' friend Pete...I don't respond that way I want to......so you can image my dismay when just moments ago as I was writing this blog... I paused to open and read an email from a artist friend who wrote to me her response to what has happened in Haiti... in her email she wrote "what kind of god would let this happen?
What should I say?
How do I offer comfort?
Would she believe me if I encouraged her to choose to trust...to choose to have faith that God does care ands that out of this horrible situation He could bring life and renew hope?
My heart ached, as I mused about what she wrote to me, and why she wrote to me. Did she write me because she really wanted me to help her answer the WHY ??? ... or perhaps ...I think she really wanted to hear from Him... you know, like when you talk really loud to someone about someone else all the while hoping that the "someone else" over hears you....
From my vantage, my friend is caught where many of us have been... wanting to reconcile her belief that God existed, but struggling to attempt to rationalize the events that made no sense, and only served to make him seem so capricious.
So I did what I knew to do, I listened,( yes I also had already put my money where my heart was.. I donated...we all donated...( if haven't donated...good grief what are you waiting for?)... http://www.worldvision.org/ ....
AND then I prayed....
I reminded God about how he captured my heart in my time of questioning when I was her age, I also reminded Him that may be.... it was her time... time for Him to reveal himself to her, just as did for me all those years ago when I too felt broken, confused, alone and fearful....I know He will....because He has ...over and over for me, each and every time life throws me what seems to be more than I can handle...
I remember that day so long ago when I really got in "his" face and began to really ask him the "hard questions" and I also remember how "he" tenderly and slowly began to put things into perspective for me. I used to think I was crazy for pressing so hard, even wondering if I was so kind of heretic...what helped is I came across a similar story that is worth reading, it is the story about two sisters. These women were also very close friends of Jesus, in the story is about how their brother died . They were angry and wanted to know where Jesus was and WHY he did not show up when they called out for his intervention. It is a really good story... I can tell you that it really spoke to my heart. Truly, I suggest you take a look and decide for yourself may be God will speak to your heart throught it as He did to mine ....
You know it is hard to make sense of death and especially the cross...yet perhaps the cross was part horizontal... pointing to you and me.... the part we play....you know like ....be practical and put your money where your heart is, ... find a place to donate to help all those dear ones in Haiti ....
AND the good news, is the cross was also vertical... God did come down and pay the price.... ....so why not remind Him of that through your own prayer???....ask for His comfort and intervention for Haiti...
Didn't He said " HE so loves the all the nations? Well this includes Haiti...He never stopped loving them and doesn't it go on to say that is why "HE GAVE His only son...."???!!!
It even records some of Jesus last words ...."paid in full"....he paid for it all.... tell him to reveal this truth to YOU...ask Him to do that for Haiti.
As for me....I know that in the book of Job it says.."everything Job lost was restored to him, when he prayed for his friends...." Sounds like a selfish prayer, but I suppose that is that horizontal part of the cross at work again...
So....What do you have to loose? PRAY .... is a good 4-letter word eh? and trust me I am using a lot of those 4-letter words in the last few weeks....
See you next week...blessings....
Kathleen
