Last Sunday, as we continued our celebration of Christmas, an earthquake and
subsequent tsunami changed the world.
Today, a week after the tsunami, it seems likely that at least 200,000 – perhaps a quarter of a million – persons will have lost their lives by the time all is said and done. At this point, there’s no way to foretell with any accuracy what impact this devastation will have on the rest of the whole. In many ways, our little corner of the world seems untouched and far removed from the destruction that ripples out from those moments last week.
In these last few days, I’ve tried to wrap my head around the reality of so many lives being lost – so many families destroyed – so many hopes and dreams brought to an abrupt end. I’ve learned that I’m not up to the task. I simply haven’t been able to take it all in. There are too many faces – too many stories – too many pictures to hold in one person’s mind and heart. This story is too big for us to begin to contain.
So, we tend to focus on one tiny part of the story – the part that we can relate to our own lives – the part that opens our hearts to compassion – the part of the story that lets us make some sort of connection with the persons who are living out this drama. For me, the part of this story that I see most clearly to me is the face of the man who kept his three year old son wrapped in his embrace until the wave literally threw him against a tree with such force that his arms opened in reflex and his son was thrust away to his death. That moment comes to my mind frequently, and I can imagine trying to hang on to the persons I love and seeing them pulled away to their deaths. I can touch that image for only a few seconds, and the pain of that imagined event opens my heart a little further to compassion for those who are living this story.
When things go bad in our world, when bad things happen to good people, when seemingly senseless events destroy the lives of those we love or those whom we will never know, our most immediate, most human impulse is to cry to God for mercy. We want God to show up. We want God to act like the kind of God we want. We want a God we can count on to make things right. We want God to fix this horror. We want God to make it good again. We want God to give us a promise that it won’t happen again.
But that doesn’t seem to be the way God works.
Both good and bad things happen to people in this world that God creates. The events of our lives seem to happen for two reasons. The first is that the world is working the way the world works. There is no intrinsic goodness or badness about the workings of the world. As far as I know, gravity works every time. This is neither bad nor good, only a fact of nature. We label the events of the world according to their impact on our lives. An apple falls into our hands – this is probably a good thing. A limb breaks, and we fall out of a tree while we’re picking apples – probably a bad thing. Cataclysmic events that occur when the world is doing what it’s supposed to do are what the insurance forms used to call an Act of God. This was the name given to natural disasters – those events of nature beyond the control of humans. Floods, hurricanes and tornados, earthquakes. Tsunamis.
These are large scale demonstrations of the way the world works – the way elements of our earth and its environment interrelate to keep the world in a process of ever-changing creation. Smaller scale demonstrations also shift our world in ways that we label according to their impact on our lives. When microorganisms find a hospitable environment, they thrive. This is neither bad nor good, only a fact of nature. A bacterium finds its way into an open wound and a deadly infectious process begins – probably not a good thing. A spore finds its way onto a piece of bread and a colony of penicillium capable of destroying bacteria grows – perhaps a good thing. The world works the way it’s supposed to work. Bad things – and good things – happen when we step into the equation.
The second reason things happen is that we humans have the gift of free will. I imagine that there are days when God regrets that particular decision. We use our God-given free will every day of our lives. We make choices – large and small – about our lives, and not all of those choices lead to wholeness in our lives or for the lives of others. We make good choices, and we make poor choices. We are free. Free to turn toward God and do our best to discern God’s deepest desire for our lives. We are also free to turn toward evil and walk the path that leads to our soul’s destruction.
After a disaster such as the tsunami, people make choices. Throughout the world,
persons are making a choice to reach their hands to the people of SE Asia. Persons
are sending aid as quickly as possible, trying to meet the growing need, trying
to assist those whose lives have been destroyed.
And there are persons who are making other choices – choices to subvert
the works of others, choices to take advantage of generosity – choices
to divert goods to line their pockets. In this time of need, as in so many others,
persons make choices. And the world keeps on working the way it’s supposed
to work.
God doesn’t change our minds for us. Neither does God turn back the tidal wave. God doesn’t change the mind of a person intent on doing evil, and God doesn’t change the way the world behaves in response to our request.
So, if God doesn’t act like the kind of God we want – the kind of God who fixes things the way we want, why do we pray?
We pray because God transforms us. We pray because God changes our experience of the way the world works. When we open our hearts to the Holy, we are drawn to live in ways that reflect God’s deepest hope for us. When we open our hearts to the Holy, we can hear the call to be God’s hands and voice in the world, the call to help those in distress, the call to comfort those who mourn. When we open our hearts to the Holy, the seed of goodness planted in each of us is nourished into bloom.
When we pray, we do not call God into our presence. When we pray, we bring ourselves and those for whom we pray into God’s presence. When we pray, we bring ourselves into God’s healing and wholeness.
And that makes all the difference.
Thanks be to God.