Today I join with all Americans as we mourn the loss of life and stand in terrifying awe of the power and chaos that is felt in the wake of the tornados that hit Moore, OK. In times like these it seems that every news cast is the same. Images of twisted steel, overturned vehicles and flattened communities where children once rode their bicycles and jumped rope while basking in the warmth of an Oklahoma breeze.
Inevitably, as a pastor, I receive the questions: Why did God allow this to happen? Why do innocent children die? Where is God in the midst of the devastation?
There are no good answers. There are absolutely no answers that I would deem ‘satisfactory’. It will never satisfy my soul to know that innocence is lost. My heart will not be ‘satisfied’ while a brother, a sister, a mother or a father mourn the loss of a loved one.
As a Christian however I must wrestle with the theological questions that form in the wake of these incidences. It would be intellectual dishonesty to ignore the fact that for many people, a loving God would not allow all of this pain and chaos to reign under His watch.
A theology of tragedy
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