So the flood of information about Hurricane Katrina relief continues to bombard us. Personally, I’m amazed that the mainstream media has been able to fixate its two-second attention span on a news story for this long. Of course, this is a unique disaster, with lots of compelling news to fuel the fire. Now the refugees are the story—even Louisville is expected to take in hundreds of people.

I volunteered to be a Youth Group leader at church this Sunday, and kids said that a local high school had raised $10,000 for disaster relief. Students were giving away their lunch money because they had nothing else. I’m sure many of you are doing the same on your campuses. Maybe some CoCo members and I can go volunteer next Sunday afternoon at the Salvation Army, if they’re still looking for people then. It may be that CoCo will decide to take some action relating to the hurricane. You never can tell at the CoCo meeting.

Last night at Youth Group, we discussed the disaster—why did God allow this to happen? Many people, of course, suggest that God made it happen, that it was some sort of punishment on the people of New Orleans for… well, exactly what depends on your theological bent, really. I’ve discovered that we humans really like to have some sort of explanation for why bad things happen. Maybe it makes us think that we can do something to prevent them from happening again.

But is God really that simple? I think about the personal disasters we deal with every day. Is God punishing the faithful Christian, who has darkened the doors of a church since birth, when she finds out that she has breast cancer? Can we really explain those events by saying that tragedies happen because God is punishing us?

Of course, lots of people would rather think that God caused it than assuming that God couldn’t stop it. So we’re left with the longstanding dilemma—are we dealing with a God that inflicts pain on good people for the heck of it, or are we dealing with an ineffectual God that can’t help us when it really matters?

I don’t think God falls into either camp. We live in a fallen world, one in which the “natural consequences” (words my pastor used) of our actions, both individually and corporately, can bring about suffering. But I also hear the words written in a pastoral letter by the leaders of our denomination to Presbyterians affected by the disaster:

“We cannot answer why such tragedies happen. What we can do is speak with the sure and certain conviction deep in our souls that God is present in the midst of the pain and panic, and that God will continue to be present each and every hour. God’s faithfulness will endure.”

I hear this, and I think of all the people who have donated their time and money to help the people of these devastated regions. I think of all the people who are praying, even now, for people they’ve never even met. I think of the flood of people calling the PC(USA) offices, asking how they can help. I think of those Louisville high school kids who raised $10,000 for the relief effort, elementary kids raising hundreds of dollars at their roadside lemonade stands.

We are God’s tools, God’s hands and feet in this world. And prompted by the Spirit, we show the Holy One’s faithfulness to all people. Working through us, God proves that good will always overcome evil.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” --Romans 12:21

Kelsey

PS-- The word verification feature was just added to prevent spam comments. We haven't had a problem up until now, but that doesn't mean we couldn't in the future. I just didn't want "Hair Club for Men" ads peppering the bottom of the blog.