The last few days have been very difficult. The pictures of Haiyan’s deadly assault on the Philippines haunt me.
"God must have been somewhere else. Or that he forgot that there is a planet called Earth," said Rodrigo Duterte, Mayor of Davao City, as he brought medical aid to Tacloban, the city hardest hit by the typhoon.
Speaking to reporters, Mayor Duterte said the people of Tacloban "have no electricity, no food, no water, all their dead are on the streets, the survivors are looking up at the heavens." . . .
"There is no local government functioning. Those that they depend on - the police, the army, and even the social workers of the government - all of them are victims, all of them are dead. Even the police and the army there are dead," he said.[1]At night as I lay in my comfortable bed, snuggled under warm blankets, I see pictures of those sleeping on the wet streets littered with what remained of what used to be homes and proud city buildings. In the mornings, I make breakfast of freshly toasted multigrain bread spread with cream cheese accompanied by crisp bacon slices and hot newly brewed coffee. I hear the cries of “We’re hungry. We have not eaten in three days.” I dine at a fine restaurant, and I ask myself, "Is it right for me to do this?"
Some friends we met in Palompon
Don and I went to Palompon, Leyte in 2009. We were there to see a close friend from college days who later was my co-teacher in Mindanao for over four years. As she retired from her teaching career, she opened a student Center in her home for young high school and college students. She has been inviting Don and me to join her in ministry in the Center. As we prayed and considered Palompon as a possible place of service,
we spent a week checking it out and trying to find out how we could fit in. We met wonderful new friends - students working hard at getting an education to help them have a better future, volunteers and staff giving of their time and energies to help young people prepare for more effective and productive lives. Then there was a new friend who took care of our meals so wonderfully and made sure we always had good hot coffee when we
wanted it. We found out
we shared a common love for coffee. In the last few
days we tried to find out what has become of them. We found out that Palompon was probably the
second hardest hit city by the typhoon.
Finally, a friend from Iloilo sent me a message. My old college friend was safe, but that’s
all she could tell us. I don’t want to ask “Why, Lord?” I keep telling myself, “God is sovereign." I may not understand this, but I trust His heart, and His heart is nothing but good. He has His reasons, known only to Him. I get reminded of my Facebook posting two years ago.
Whenever one begins a question with "why," he should realize that the answer must necessarily be theological, not scientific. Science can deal with the questions of "what" and "how," sometimes even with "where" and "when," but never with "why"! The "why" questions have to do with motives and purposes, even when dealing with natural phenomena. ("Why does the earth rotate on its axis?" "Why do we have mosquitoes?") Even though we can partially explain such things by secondary causes, we finally encounter a "first cause," and then the "why?" can be answered only by God.[2]
