The love and prayers of the people of Mariemont Community Church go out to the families affected by the tragic events at Virginia Tech. One of our elders was up in the middle of the night praying for the families, and all he could do was groan and let God give him the words to say. (Romans 8:26-27)
     At times of human tragedy – by the acts of one human being, or in natural disasters like Katrina, it is common and understandable to ask “where is God in all this damage and suffering?” Specifically, we wonder how an all-powerful and all-good God can allow such things to happen. Surely he is powerful enough and good enough to stop the damage and suffering?

Larry King asked Billy Graham this question just about every time he was on his show. I was always thankful that Dr. Graham always offered biblical truth in humility, ultimately finishing his answer with a "I don't really know why God does some things". In other words, as God says in the Bible "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,"  declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-11)

However the Bible says that the entire earth is groaning under the cumulative weight of man's sin. Somehow the collective sin of humanity affects the earth and adversity is part of the consequences of mankind being separated from the perfect protection of God. (Romans 8:18-22)

He has unlimited "concurrency"A killer earthquake was the beginning of my journey to learn about and then decide to follow God through the amazing gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. (See My Story for details.) God seems to use disasters to transform lives, in many ways. His ability to use one event for thousands of different purposes is part of his amazing capability to handle things of huge complexity at one time. He has unlimited "concurrency" in using events to work in the lives of everyone.

So, any serious theologian or philosopher has to admit great unknowns exist about what God is actually up to in these events, and why. One thing for sure, though, is that the view of the Bible is far more satisfactory than any other system of thought. Why? Because only in Jesus do we see God coming to enter into human suffering, and going to the extreme of that suffering, to redeem mankind. God doing what we cannot do ourselves.

... God allows it to preserve human freedom and choice In the end, that is the most satisfying answer ... to know that whatever suffering exists, God allows it to preserve human freedom and choice ... and then sends his son to enter into that suffering and dwell with us in it. That is truly amazing ... our God-man, Jesus, was the King of heaven, and came to fulfill the prophecies that he would among many things, be "a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering".

So where is God in these times of anguish? I don't know really. But I have a sense that God knows and some day he will let us see. In the meantime, I thank God that he sent Jesus into this mess that we have made, and that Jesus made the way out for us.