The Dallas News reported yesterday that “two doctors, a nurse and a load of medical supplies flew out of Addison Airport on Monday in one of the first Haitian relief trips arranged by a network of Texas Baptist organizations.” This is just one of many examples of faith groups sending medical teams to Haiti. This outpouring of generosity represents a significant commitment of people to live out, not just talk about, their faith.
As I argued in my last post, the significance of God entering the world in the form of Jesus challenges our first questions about disaster. Instead of first asking “Why did God allow this?,” people of faith should be asking “Where is God in the disaster?” (Although everyone wrestles with God in a different way). The life of Jesus shows us that God wants to embrace us in love and in our painful circumstances. He sifts through the shards of a broken world to find us. Rescuing people is what the life of Christ is all about. Christ suffered horribly and unjustly, and he is with us when we suffer like that too. But the message of Jesus is not just about God being with us in suffering, his message is also us being sent out as his disciples to heal the world holistically (spiritually and physically). Jesus was always healing and helping people, and sending out his disciples to do the same. More and more followers of Christ are taking this aspect of his message seriously.
God invites us to join with him in saving and redeeming a broken world. And many are doing just that, joining with God to help those who suffer. And sometimes even the Dallas News takes note.
(to be con’t)
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