I am not a newsy kind of blogger. I’m not a newsy kind of person. But I’m slowly catching up with the few blogs I read, and with the news. Of course I have been aware of Katrina and aftermath (who could not be?), but I wasn’t aware of the extent of media and blog coverage. There is even a blog out there reputed to be “the source” for All Things Katrina.

“How many terrible things there are going on in the world right now!” I lamented to N yesterday during our walk. Not only are there such great natural catastrophes (my memory of last December’s tsunami is still fresh), but there is such human error and strife compounding it. How could we not do a better job responding to such disasters in “our day and age”?

N responded that the reason we can become so caught up in disasters like the December tsunami, or hurricane Katrina, is because the media is able to report every last detail, and do it with such immediacy across so many venues. We easily become obsessed! (How many hours did I spend in front of the TV during the days and week after 9/11?) Beginning with CNN reporting during the bombing of Baghdad during the first Gulf War (how clearly I remember watching that on TV!), our world has become able to participate first hand right along with the victims of war and disaster. It’s not that there haven’t been wars and disasters throughout all of history, it’s that now we can all participate personally in each and every one of them (to the extent it is reported) in real time.

In at least one respect all this media attention is a wonderful thing. Imagine the aid that now flows to people in need!

But there’s also a bad side. People get worked up over it, as if it “shouldn’t happen”, as if somehow we should be able to do a better job preventing or responding to such disasters in “our day and age”. Well, of course, in a cosmic sense, none of these things “should happen”. The world wasn’t meant to be the way it is. But in a fallen world, inevitably, they DO happen — always have, ever since Adam was tossed out of the Garden and began to till the earth by the sweat of his brow and Eve was obliged to give birth in pain and sorrow. Remember Noah and the flood? Remember Christ on the Cross? This fallen world even kills GOD as He comes to SAVE us.

The kids and I have been reading Job this past week and discussing suffering. Job may have been a righteous man, and yes, we understand that both he and his friends believed in a certain kind of justice, that “the righteous should be blessed, and the wicked should be cursed.” To each his due. And God Himself is just. But whatever happened to the Fall? Whatever happened to all of us being in this together? It’s not just me and my righteousness or wickedness that counts. I am my brother’s keeper, and he is mine. We humans are keepers in the world. What has come about through Adam’s fault, and later through our own fault, keeps coming around, and around, and around. It has passed even into the rest of created nature, which fell with us. Why are we always so surprised when it comes around again?

God can bring good out of ALL of it. There is justice, even in a fallen world. But God’s Way of bringing good about is bound to be beyond our reckoning — exactly as God admonished Job when He spoke to him from out the whirlwind. A whirlwind indeed. God speaks, even from within a hurricane. The question is, can we hear Him? Are we like Job’s friends, insistent upon “justice”? Unbelieving that Job could be a righteous man? Or can we take Job as our example, who speaketh well of God — well after he admits that he knows NOTHING, and repents in dust and ashes, after God accosts him from out the whirlwind. Job does not give up on God, no. He does not curse God (and die). But he gives up his fuss. He repents, even in his righteousness, he accepts, he goes on with his life such as it is, and his Life is restored to him double-fold.

I’m the last person not to find great joy in this world, in the beauty of nature, in the beauty of a human smile, in a handshake or hug, even in many forms of human art and contrivance. But the truth is, in a fallen world, All Things are Katrina.

There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. (Luke 13:1-5)

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:28-31)

And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls. (Luke 21:16-19)

The Good News is that the fallen world is not — contrary to appearances in times like these — hell. Fear hell. Fear losing your soul in your impatience with God and man. Repent in dust and ashes, and let God be God, Who can bring all good out of worldly evil — Who already has.

IOCC