The world is stunned at what has happened in the United States. The forces of Evil have struck deep into the "Land of the Free". People have asked the question: Does God Care? Why did He let this happen? List Director of Just a Minute, John Leach, looks at it from the spiritual angle and asks that we trust in God. You can meet John at http://justaminute.mybravenet.com/meet_john_leach.html
Does God really care?
Why do bad things happen to good people? Conversely, why do good things happen to bad people? These same questions in one form or another echo down through the centuries. The Old Testament reeks of human drama - the "good" suffering while the "bad" go unpunished. The psalms call for justice while the perpetrators seemed to be blessed? Why do Christians suffer along with those who don't give God a tinker's curse?
There is no easy answer to this dilemma and the Bible is strangely quiet as to why an all powerful God does not intervene to right situations which are obviously wrong.
The young mother with cancer, the child run down in his own back yard by a drunken driver, the youth killed for his joggers by a drug addict; why New York City, Washington? All of them human tragedies for which there seems to be no reason. On a bigger scale, earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters which take millions of lives every year. The injustices of the world, ethnic cleansing, wars, economic and social repression; why, why, why? Does God really care is a legitimate question to ask.
If you take God's Word in its entirety - the Bible - there is a resounding YES. God does care! As Jesus, God cured people's sicknesses and wept at the death of his friend Lazarus. Even Jesus endured indescribable pain as he died on the Cross. From Jesus' own lips he cried to his Father "why have you forsaken me." But if God cares, how do we reconcile this apparent reluctance for God to act with the all-powerful God of the Universe.
The answer may lay hidden from our sight and understanding. St Paul alluded to this when he referred to the spiritual war that was raging in the Universe. What happens here on earth is just a pale echo of the grinding, groaning war between good and evil.
We are the foot soldiers in this war. It really does matter that we hold the faith when it seems pointless, it does matter that we invoke forgiveness rather than retribution, it does matter that we love rather than hate. It does matter that we extend compassion when we seem to come off second best. It does matter that we claim victory when the battle seems lost around us. We are co-fighters with God against the power principalities of darkness.
When Jesus entered the world the whole of Creation shook. God served notice that Evil had its day. God has promised that one day there will be no pain and every tear will be wiped away. All of what is happening now will be like a distant memory. Our questions now will be like those we asked when we were children. They will seem so obvious and naive.
In the meantime God does not ask us to understand him but love him with all our heart, and all our mind and to love others as we love ourselves and as he loves us.
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