Where is Your God now?
“27 dead. Where is your God now? Why would he let innocent children die?” One of my coworkers asked me after we heard the news of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Non Christian’s argue in times like this that God is not real; or if He is, He isn’t able to help prevent us from tragedy like this. Christian’s believe that God controls all things and has a purpose in everything that happens. God was not surprised by this shooting; he is not shocked that 27 people died. He is not stunned that children were killed. He is not an emotional wreck. He is at work helping the grieving and suffering, as well as working out His secret design in and through this tragic event.
Now is not time for me to rebut my coworker. Now is not the time for a theological explanation of the “why” a tragedy like this happens in this broken world. Now is the time to weep. Now is the time for prayer and action. There is nothing wrong with weeping when in times like this, even Jesus wept. But lets not just weep. Let’s pray for the victims’ families, the frightened school children, the hurting parents, their weeping friends, the confused and lost people of Sandy Hook. But let us also pray that God will prepare, equip and raise up people to minister to the many who are hurting, confused and hopeless. Pray also for the churches and pastors of Newtown, that God would enable them to minister beyond their own congregations to a hurting and stunned community.
I am going to hug my kids again.
I am in pain and distress;
may your salvation, O God, protect me. Psalm 69:29
49 Remember your word to your servant,
for you have given me hope.
50 My comfort in my suffering is this:
Your promise preserves my life.
51 The arrogant mock me unmercifully,
but I do not turn from your law.
52 I remember, Lord, your ancient laws,
and I find comfort in them.Psalm 119:49-52
A very good perspective on the situation. This is a terribly sad situation, but like you said it’s important to remember this doesn’t surprise God, because he has a great plan for everything. I take comfort in that.
What numbing heartbreak….
Those questioning where God is in all of this….are they the same people who fight to keep God out of the schools?
Great note Cecile…there is one going around fb right now saying…
Dear God
Why so you let me so much misery happen in our schools?
Concerned student
Dear Concerned Student
You don’t let me in your Schools
God
A thought that came to my mind: if there is no God and if we humans are merely temporary collections of molecules, then the behavior of the shooter is just the result of molecules moving which would imply that in an ultimate sense, he couldn’t help it. Atheists like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking are thorough-going materialists who reject free moral agency. Things happen because of the molecules. If people want to use this tragedy to reject God, remind them where their decisions will take them.
Made me think of a quote by CS Lewis:
“Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.”