Surely, we’ve noticed the overwhelming grim news all over the media.
To name a few-police brutality on black lives, terrorists’ attacks, outbreak of diseases. Today, wars are raging. Economy is in near collapse. The largest humanitarian crisis of our days, the refugee crisis is tearing the world apart.
I am sure we question: “Where is God in all of these?”, “Why does He seems silent?”
It is easy to retreat to disappointment and hopelessness towards humanity. It is easy to give up chasing the rainbow’s ends, settling down, expecting less, and repressing the part of ourselves which used to cry out for the moon.
However, we can never only look at the way the world is and decipher God’s purpose. I can be on top of a mountain and sing to “It’s a wonderful world”, or sit face-to-face with a war survivor and question humanity. Indeed, we are not made for this world. Disappointments are real so we will not be too attached with the world. Being created with a spirit that craves God, anything less than God, will leave an ache.
My heart aches seeing the consequences of the fall in Genesis 3 which results to a massive fracturing of humanity. With creation, we see earthquakes and floods. With God, we rebelled. With others and within ourselves, we are at war against our sinful nature.
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, nether shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Without believing in God’s promise that He will put things right again in the end, it is hard to continue to hope. My heart is put to ease seeing that God is still in the work of redeeming amidst the chaos humanity brings to herself. The good news left uncovered by the media—of a small girl in North Korea whose parents were killed by the government but she was found and later became a voice of justice, of an Afghan refugee who flee from the persecution back home, shipped to Indonesia, now discipled in my home church. Beauty from the ashes.
God is still sovereign in the rebellion of humanity.
Actually, the sickness “out there” in the world is a reflection of the sickness inside each of us. The news we hear out there are symptoms of the deeper problem of our brokenness. If all these evil can happen in massive scale, it can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone. All is within human possibility--to kill or to be a victim. Our greed simply takes another form. We may not be trafficking humans, but we wear clothes made by underpaid and poorly treated workers. We may not be rioting in the streets, but our silence makes us stand on the side of injustice.
If we we not raised in a home at this time and place, we would have done "those" horrendous acts. We are all born Auscwitz-enabled, born from the father of genocide of Adam's family.
“Understanding the depth of human sinfulness, we should see how gracious and merciful God is.”
Bad things happen to good people because now we know there are no good people. God allow evil because He allow human beings.
What do we do then?
Our call is to intercede. To carry these unsettling causes in prayers. The distinguishing mark of God’s people is not intellectual might nor incredible strength but the power of answered prayer. In Exodus, Moses’s prayer to intercede for lost people made God revoke his wrath on the people.
Is not it amazing that we get to call to Holy God and He gives us full attention? He would answer us ,though He is not obliged to, at the same time sustaining the whole universe. Pause for a second and ponder on the fact that God desperately wants us to participate with Him to change history, not only to cheer on Him from the sideline. Isn't He lovely?
We get to co-labor with God to accomplish good things and advance his kingdom purposes in prayers. It’s our royal privilege to raise our voice to heaven. We can be angry at evil but still live in hope.
Dear friends, continue to pray and minister, even though on this side of eternity we might not see the result of our labor. Let us cry out in brokenness to God so healing may begin.
“Fight as if the battle all depended on you but look up and know that it all ultimately depends on the Lord.”