Sovereign King

“As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless.” (Psalm 18:30)

Allow me to partially depart from remembering Haiti with a brief discourse on God’s sovereignty.*** What with my college graduation swiftly approaching, my own plans blown wide open in so many ways, and God generally remaining too-quiet-for-comfort on the small but dear issue of my life, remembering our Creator Lord’s perfect dominion over all things is especially important for maintaining my sanity, which is otherwise at the mercy of a SSRI.

*** I’ve now finished writing this post, and along with not being brief, it turns out I haven’t departed from Haiti at all—and that I apparently had some serious reckoning to do with God. I hope this is an encouragement to my team, and any others who have personally experienced great suffering or witnessed that of others.

“Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.” (Psalm 9:10)

Lack of empathy for the despair of nature and man is not my will or purpose. A glib tossing up of hands at tragedy and attributing everything, good or bad, to God’s will demonstrates a lack of the understanding we can have. It is not easy to look through the thickness of depression—through a deep blackness of loneliness and isolation, past a blinding betrayal by a lover, through the fragmented glass of family deaths and other damaged relationships, through any of the endless sources of pain a person may experience—only to look through a grimy bus window into decimated Port-au-Prince. Questioning God’s goodness and control is completely natural and is a necessary step toward being able to walk with Him with “freedom and confidence” (Ephesians 3:12).

“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

How can God be perfectly good and omnipotent if He allows disasters like the earthquake that hit Haiti? I will try to do more justice to the example than I did in the maddening conversation Kristi and I had last Monday with a truculent man near Lincoln Center. On that occasion, I made the mistake of arguing that God used the earthquake and the 2-3 hundred thousand fatalities as a means for attracting the world’s attention to the absurd suffering of the remaining eleven million citizens. He, bent on being argumentative, twisted that to conclude God deliberately chose an earthquake in a cold, uncreative, few-for-the-many utilitarian sacrifice that couldn’t have been further from my point or the Truth.

I meant that my God, also omniscient, has an eternal perspective and orders far-reaching plans that, in our shortsightedness and limited understanding, may appear to us pointless and cruel. The much-beloved verse:

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” (Jeremiah 29:11)

is even more amazing when one considers the Lord spoke it at the beginning of Israel’s 70 years of exile in Babylon. We only sometimes see the good that comes from struggle and even then, we, lacking wisdom, may disagree with God’s plan. But one thing of which we may be sure is that He is good, and good for His word. Having an eternal perspective is not mutually exclusive of caring incredibly about the details of how His will is accomplished.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose… If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:28, 31)

I’ve started reading Trusting God, by Jerry Bridges, which has provided the structure, if not inspiration, for this argument. He is more succinct and clear by distinguishing ‘enabling’ from ‘permitting’—two activities which, by the way, both imply having authority and power. Bridges’ definition allows me to refine my point about the earthquake, which I believe, along with all other natural disasters, is a result of fallen, rebellious creation (c.f. Genesis 3:17-18).

“Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:2)

A clarified explanation of the earthquake would then go something as follows: the earthquake was one manifestation of rebellious nature, which God, who “sustains all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3, emphasis added), permitted, as it was somehow in accordance with His grand plan of redemption. I must remember that, despite the fact that Haiti has been in trouble since its existence, international attention and aid really only began after the earthquake. And, from personal testimonies, many people’s hearts turned toward or were rejuvenated for God. These are good things to God, and these and many others will make the tragedy ‘worth it’, if only in His all-seeing eyes. I must remember that oft-quoted Romans verse, 8:28 (above), does not promise there will not be hardship. It promises that God will make good from every circumstance, no matter how bad.

“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 42:11)

It must be my comfort to be confident in God’s good promise. The earthquake was not outside His plan. He is not surprised by it, nor the deaths, nor the orphans. But neither does that mean He does not mourn. I must take comfort in His plan, and begin by opening my eyes to the raw reality that much of my passion and peace in my Lord at this very moment is fueled by the encounter with Him in that scorched place—and that it was likely the earthquake that brought me there. I must be like the young orphaned boy who told Joe that, despite losing both his parents, “He was okay, because he had Jesus Christ.”

“My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.” (Psalm 130:6)