Viewpoint: Making Sense out of the Senseless
07-02-2010Dr. William O. Reeves
When I was a kid, my family used to camp at the Albert Pike recreation area. We took our kids there when they were young. So I felt a connection when a flash flood ripped through the campground June 11 and killed 20 people. Later I felt a more intense connection when I found out that a dear friend’s granddaughter, Gayble Moss, age 7, was one of the victims.
The same day the papers screamed headlines about the flood, there was an article about the tragedy we had heard about at Annual Conference. Lillian Wilson, a dedicated servant of the Central United Methodist Church in Hamlin, was murdered in the sanctuary of the church. While gathering relief supplies to deliver to conference, she was beaten to death with the cross from the church’s altar. It doesn’t get any more evil than that.
When we confront these horrible and senseless tragedies, our natural response is to ask the unanswerable questions. Why them? Why now? Where was God? Can’t God stop this innocent suffering?
There are no satisfying answers to these questions, as often as we ask them. The pastor at Gayble’s funeral suggested we focus on what we know, rather than what we do not know. Wise words. To focus on what we do not know and cannot understand only leads to anger and bitterness.
What we do know is the nature of God. God is pure love and compassion. Jeremiah said, “He will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.” It is a comfort to know that the first heart to break when the flood arose and when Lillian Wilson was attacked was the great divine heart of God.
I heard the Albert Pike flood described on television as an “act of God.” The God I worship does not act that way. In his divine wisdom, he has limited his sovereignty to allow freedom in the natural and human realm. Only in freedom can we be fully human—to love, to believe, and to be in relationship with our Creator. Natural and human freedom sometimes turn tragic, and when they do, it is God who stands in the gap—to comfort, strengthen, and heal. It’s his nature.
The second thing we know is that the physical world is temporary. Paul writes, “What can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” Lillian Wilson was blessed with a long life; Gayble Moss with only seven short years. Both were blessings to those who knew them. It is no small thing to believe that their lives did not end when their physical lives were cut short. They had a home prepared for them. Despite the pain of their loss for those who were left in the temporary world, for them it is all good.
The last thing we know—the last thing we need to know—is the powerful reality of grace. It is captured in the immortal words of Romans 8:28: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (NIV) This is the way God has dealt with human tragedy from the beginning—the Garden of Eden, the Hebrew captivity, the Babylonian exile, the crucifixion of Jesus, the Holocaust, 9/11, and too many others. Not all things are good; some are horrible and senseless. But out of the worst that human sinners and a broken creation can do, God can bring good.
God’s goodness is not mathematical—what can equal the life of a child? But it is miraculous, that anything good can come out of some of the tragedies we experience. More love, more faith, the healing of a broken heart, a new beginning on the rubble of shattered hopes and dreams—that’s where God works best.
For the families whose lives were devastated by the Albert Pike flood and the murder in the sanctuary, things will not be OK for a long time. But slowly healing can happen. Things will never be the same again, but they can be good again. That is an amazing gift of grace and a real act of God.
