The Haiti Earthquake: Where is God when tragedy strikes?

The catastrophic earthquake in Haiti has caused people of faith all over the world to ask themselves: “Where is God?” In such times, many Christians with agnostic leanings (including myself) find it hard to peddle conventional wisdom about God: that he protects us, that he cares for us, that he wants humanity to be whole, and that he has created a world in which it’s easy to have faith in him. In these times, many seekers struggle with even his existence.

However, I find comfort in an old account that records God’s presence. It is found in the story of what most of us regard as the most important day in the history of Christianity: the crucifixion.

The Bible records that when Jesus was crucified, he cried out “Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani” which means “My God, My God… Why have you forsaken me?” Note, we could discuss why it was that Jesus referred to his equal as “My God,” or how it is that an omniscient being would ask why he was being crucified. We could also ask why, if Jesus knew that he was going to be resurrected into divine power, he felt forsaken… But that’s not the purpose of this blog entry.

The purpose of this short entry is to highlight two things that are evident to me when I read this story:

1. Bad things happen to good people.
2. Even the godliest among us often die unjustly.
3. God’s presence is in the midst, even when we don’t realize he is there.

So while I don’t have the answers, I want to show that Christianity doesn’t teach that God always prevents bad things from happening. We all want a world without pain (and God knows I certainly do)…. Since we don’t have such a world, we have to rely on the goodness of the Holy Spirit inside us to make the world a better place. I can’t speak to why such tragedies happen, but I know it is in these times that we are called to exhibit the kind of unfailing love that the world needs. We have to be Godlike, Christlike, and more empathetically human than ever before--- and we must pray for the strength to carry out our duty.