I read the headline and wept. The picture of destruction was bleakly illustrated in a few devastating words. Through the years, it has been easy to become desensitized to the chaos around us. We almost grow a separate skin for dealing with such things. Occasionally we allow ourselves a small sliver of humanity to show at the prompting of a quick youtube video or manufactured feel-good story. Yet, we are ill prepared to deal with a suffering with higher stakes.
We need closure. We need to feel the hope on the other side.
Few of us know what to do with the unresolved ache of a broken world. As the flood waters rose in Houston, so did this once disguised ache.
God of mercy, where are you?
It was once said that God handles suffering in a manner counter to our intuition. While He could easily say enough to the chaos – the mass hurt of humanity, He allows it to play out like some great drama. Instead of delivering, He does something unthinkable. His solution was not found in an ending of suffering, but in coming down to this all too real world and to suffer with us. We question this strategy in times like these.
We need closure. We need to feel the hope on the other side.
Not all suffering has a purpose. Not all doubts are answered. Yet if there is any comfort in this world, it is found in His presence alongside the turmoil. He is with us. He is in the headlines and the tears. He is in the rising flood waters as well as in the outpouring of compassion from a once desensitized world.
Lord of mercy, show us your presence.
Matt simon blog 