Guatemala - Why?

The earthquake which rocked Guatemala early last month left a trail of devastation far greater than the early estimates indicated. Tens of thousands died and the number of seriously injured was so great that many of these succumbed before it was possible to reach them with medical aid. As is usual in such disasters doctors, nurses and rescue teams worked unceasingly with quiet heroism. Aid flowed in swiftly from neighbouring countries but the problems are of such dimension and perplexity that they severely taxed even those most experienced in disasters of this magnitude. Supplies of food, drinking water and medicine are first priorities. But the harrowing problem is the rehabilitation of the hundreds of thousands of homeless nerve-shocked refugees.

Those of us whose experience of such disasters is limited to what reaches us through the news media can have but little conception of the heartbreak they bring. Human suffering cannot be calculated in cold statistics. What happened in Guatemala last month stabs the heart and brings to us a sense of utter helplessness. Christian compassion will drive us to prayer. But the enigma of human suffering, wider in its implications, remains. What does it all mean? How long will it continue? There is no easy answer to these Questions.

In this spirit of enquiry the Preacher, in the book of Ecclesiastes, surveyed the world he lived in. He saw in it the same apparent inequalities and contradictions that we see in our world today. And he came to the conclusion that "time and chance happeneth to them all" (9:11). He could find no consistent pattern by which to measure "all that is done under heaven". Nor can we. We do not know because God has not revealed it. This is how the Preacher summed up his survey of things "under the sun": "As thou knowest not what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child; even so thou knowest not the work of God who doest all" (11:5). Get on with the business of your lives. Don't dissipate your energies speculating on matters which an all-wise God has not disclosed, "In the morning sow they seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand" (11:6). That is the gist of the Preacher's counsel. Whether it be in wider aspect of world events or in the narrower sphere of our own lives and circumstances, "Leave to thy God to order and provide". And when the nagging 'Why?' creeps into our hearts let faith rest in the knowledge that,

"God everywhere hath sway,

And all things serve His might;

His every act pure blessing is,

His path unsullied light."

But there is another way in which the present distress of mankind should bear upon disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ in Western lands. Large areas of the world are in a state of deprivation. Millions are hungry and homeless. War is being waged with pitiless brutality. In prisons and labour camps in many lands thousands are submitted to barbarous torture for political ends. Is this a time to be "at ease in Zion"? A time to squander our lives chasing the 'goodies' (?) which are treasured so highly by those whose "portion is in this life"? Surely not! It is a time to review our life-style. A time to discipline our habits; a time to give more attention to the spiritual and eternal, and less to the material and temporal.

"This is the end of the matter", said the Preacher,

"Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgement, with every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil."

(Eccles. 12:13,14)

The Christian Home

"It is not too much to say that the perfecting of Home is the masterpiece of the gospel, in its work of social blessing. Nothing on earth is so beautiful as a perfect home; and it takes the Name of Christ and the grace of His Spirit to produce the full phenomenon. Home is the school of mutual unselfishness and duty, where love is continually learning its true work, namely, the finding its happiness in the felicity of another." (H.C.G. Moule)

unknown | Mar 1976
Comment By Torchlight