When a Tragedy Happens...Where is God?

When Tragedies Happen – Where was God? 

Whenever there are tragedies, people always ask, "Where was God?"  Believers ask either out of doubt or anger or fear; non-believers "ask" in order to "prove" that there is no God.  

This article will attempt to look at tragedies from a Christian view and attempt to answer the question, "Where was God when they occurred?"  Of course, our ways are not God's ways, so any human attempt to answer this question is essentially an exercise at making best guesses from the information we do know.  Could everything in here be wrong? - yes!  Can you disagree? - yes!  Am I right about anything? - I would hope so, and this was approached through prayer and is my best understanding of God as revealed in Scripture, but there is no guarantee that what I say is right.  Only God knows the full truth.  All I can promise is that I have tried to remain faithful in composing this article.

 Tragedies have always been part of human history. Ever since Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit, there has been tragedies happening.  Often, when something terrible happens, we tend to think that "this" or "that" tragedy is the worst ever.  In terms of number, we may be correct at times, but defining "worst," is difficult.  "Worst" implies that statistics, and when a tragedy happens, those who live on rarely care about statistics because they lost loved ones.  The tragedy is horrible to them.

As long as history has been recorded, there have been tragedies. People have always wondered, "Where was God?" When we actually think about it, the number of tragedies is staggering.  In ancient times, there was the volcanic eruption of Pompeii.  Imagine what the people there thought as they faced immanent and panful death.  From ancient to modern times, brutal massacres and wars have happened to large groups of people - The Holocaust, The Rwandan Genocide, The Inquisition, The Congo Wars, Colonialism, Slavery, World Wars, The near eradication of the Native Americans, and these are just a few.  There have been many natural disasters - the Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornados, Hurricanes, and such.  Senseless violence has also been happening since ancient times - murders, rapes, arson, gang violence, robberies, and the list goes on.  We are not new to tragedy.

When people ask, "Where was God?" They often have deeper questions in mind that they are afraid to voice.  It is natural to avoid saying certain things about God to others, but we have to realize that God knows our every thought. It is more important to know that God can handle our every thought - even if it is anger directed AT God. Often, "Where was God?" is a masked question meant to mean one or more of the following: "Why didn't God stop this from happening?" "Is God strong enough to stop evil?" "Why did God let this happen to me (or someone I care about)?" Or even, "Is there a God?" Again, God can handle these questions.  As you read the Psalms, you will see these questions asked.  You will see God "under attack" as often as God is praised.  Sometimes, we may need to adjust our thinking that being angry with God is not a sign of lack of faith, but it is a sign of complete faith.  We don't blindly follow - we are comfortable enough to question.  Yes, there are limits, but God will lead you.

Defining what a tragedy is (and what it isn't) is often hard.  When someone we love is very old and dies of natural causes, we will still cry and mourn, but most people will not describe that as a tragedy.  If, however, that same person were the caretaker of a disabled spouse or adult child, that same death may be a tragedy - at least to the person left behind or to the person or people who now have to fill the shoes.  Natural disasters are often considered tragedies, but even that has to be qualified.  If you lose a few shingles on your roof, and I lose my entire house, it is more of a tragedy to me than it is to you.  If you can sympathize with me, however, you can see that it is a tragedy for me.  As humans, we also tend to qualify tragedies by how close they happen to "home."  A murder can happen in our hometown, and that is most definitely a tragedy.  We can hear about the same thing in a foreign country, and hardly give it another thought, even if the murder happened on a greater scale.  So, as you process the word "tragedy," remember that words have different connotations.  Remember that what is a tragedy to you hardly affects someone across the world, and vice versa.  But, at the same time, maybe it should.  This is not to say we should spend all of our lives in grief mode, but rather that we should be more sensitive to the needs and pains of others even if we do not know them.

Luke 13:1-5 says:  At that very time there were some present who told him [Jesus] about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

Notice what Jesus does say and what he doesn't say.  The people who suffered various tragedies aren't suffering for any sin that they committed.  For some reason, these terrible incidents "just happened."  Instead, Jesus is using these incidents to teach people to turn towards God or they will perish in the same way.  That doesn't mean they will be murdered or have a tower fall on them, but rather that they will be judged and not be with God in the present or for eternity.  Many people look at tragedies and think that God caused them to happen as a punishment.  But here, Jesus refutes that claim. Tragedies happen...period.  Jesus, who could explain, doesn't.  But, we know that there is nothing we can do to prevent them.

All too often after a tragedy, we hear "Big Names" blaming the tragedy on one thing or another.  Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church will blame almost anything on gay people. Pat Robertson will come up with something surprising each time something happens, most often talking about how America has angered God and God is punishing us.  There will be others who say that tragedies are the sign of the End Times.  The sad part is that too many people believe this hogwash.  People want answers, but sometimes, God just doesn't provide answers.  Just because a preacher has media time, that does not make him or her correct.  Each time a tragedy happens and you hear things like this, go back to God's word and ask, "Is what I just heard in line with God's character?" "Does it match up with scripture?"

In Ezekiel 18:20, God speaks through Ezekiel saying, "The person who sins shall die. A child shall not suffer for the iniquity of a parent, nor a parent suffer for the iniquity of a child; the righteousness of the righteous shall be his own, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be his own."  It is true that God once punished entire nations or communities for the sins of some, but at this point, God said that people would be punished for their own sins.  This makes a huge difference.  Why would a child in one part of the nation be punished for the sin of a person in another part of the nation?  And, as we read above, God doesn't punish sins through tragedies.  God judges our sins, and weighs them through Christ's Cross.

An equally disturbing answer to the question, "Where was God?" is to answer the person who was affected with, "Everything happens for a reason."  Does everything happen for a reason?  Or sometimes do things just happen?  When God gave humans free will, doesn't that involved the chance that things could just happen for no reason at all other than someone decided to act in a sinful manner (or if something good happens, it happened because someone acted in a godly manner)?  This is hard to understand, and I won't pretend to have all of the answers.  But I do know that if I were the victim of a tragedy, the last thing I would want to hear is that "it happened for a reason."  I cannot claim to know God's divine planning.  Maybe God did have a divine plan - I will not discount that some things happen for a reason. Maybe through what I call a tragedy, God had something better planned for me, but still, while I am grieving, I do not want to hear that there was a reason for my tragedy.  Here is an example:  Several years ago, I lost one of the best jobs I ever had due to budget cuts.  It hurt, and it hurt bad!  Not only did I lose my job, but my wife lost hers as well.  We had just had our son that same year.  There was no way to see this coming.  We ended up losing not only our jobs, but our entire savings account in trying to keep our house, and then we ended up losing our house.  We were forced to move to a different state to find jobs. Everything worked out fine, and within 2 years, I felt the call to ministry.  Life now is much better than I could have dreamed even when I was working at the job I loved.  Did God plan it that way?  I can't answer that. But during the process, and even now, I still don't want to hear that my pain had a reason.  I would rather hear that God was with me during the whole process.  I KNOW that is true.  

While God may or may not cause some things to happen, it is safe to say that God does intervene to prevent or at least lessen the damage of tragedies.  Why God does this in some cases and not in others is a mystery.  Almost everyone who has been driving for some time has almost been in a wreck "except for the grace of God."  I take that to mean that there is no human explanation for why the wreck didn't happen.  Somehow God intervened.  Some people who were once homeless have gone on to become success stories.  God had to give them the motivation, but yet God also had to make their story and applications look impressive to the powers that be.  And yet, this same God doesn't always intervene.  There are just as many cases of tragedies taking the lives of children and innocent adults.  I can't explain why God intervenes sometimes and not in others.  The times God does intervene is not always for the most faithful people, and it is not always for the most thankful or deserving people.  Sometimes, it is plain just not fair!  Again, one thing we can know for certain, whether or not God works in the way we want, we can know that God is with us whether we know it or not.  God never leaves our side.

Stanley Hauerwas, Christian Ethicist, says that the Church is the Alternative to the World.  By being The Church and living peacefully amidst the violence of the world, we expose the world for what it is.  We also expose Christ as the answer to all of life’s problems.  By being the Church, the world will be more violent before it becomes more peaceful.  We don’t act on the world’s terms, we make the world act on ours.  Jesus did the same - He didn't act on Rome's terms, he made them act on his!

We can't know the answer to every question we ask about God.  We want to know the answers! That is normal.  We can know that God is with us no matter what we go through.