Recently a reporter was interviewing a controversial Christian author and his first question to the author was, “Is God all powerful but uncaring about the tragedies in Japan, or does He care but is not all powerful and  so can’t do anything about it?”  The Christian author stumbled around and somehow mumbled a reply that we live in a state of paradox in our faith.  The squirming author did rescue himself slightly by saying that whenever we shed a tear, God does too.

It was  a trap for sure. But what do you say to all the things you see around you? Some say it is a sign of God’s wrath and judgment. It’s not a popular view, but a valid option. The Bible speaks clearly about the devastation of end times. What about the view that God is all powerful but uninterested? An atheist once described God as a great watch maker who set it to ticking and then walked away. 

Can God be all powerful and all loving and yet let all this happen?

When you are watching Youtubes of calamities from the comfort of your own home, with electricity, and hot coffee and a fridge full of clean food, it is easy to give God a big thumbs up. But when your house is a pile of giant pick up sticks and the crops you sell have been contaminated with radiation, then what do you think about the goodness of God?

I can only give you one fellow pilgrim’s perspective. This world is not our home. We live in a war zone, on the battlefield of the greatest search and rescue mission ever attempted. God is redeeming our world and His enemy uses whatever he can to destroy it. What is our response?

See to it that you focus on what Jesus said to focus on. “I am with you, even to the ends of the earth.” Don’t take that for granted. Bank on it. Put the weight of your own life and existence on that one fact. His death and resurrection made it possible for you to be rightly related to our Father, to be washed of your guilt, and to have the very nature of God living inside you through the Holy Spirit.  This is no small matter. Unbelievers do not have such hope. They feel utterly alone and abandoned, destitute with nowhere and no one to turn to for help. This is not your truth.

You have the arms of God around you at all times. We are “hid” in Christ. This is a supernatural reality. Even in times of complete devastation, He is still God and still holding all things together. We can and do look for the miraculous nature of God to be revealed in and through our lives every day. Regardless of where we live, whether we have food or not, whether governments do the right thing or not, we have God. He has us.

And that is more than enough.