God’s
comfort for Tsunami affected people
Human
suffering is increasing. Some of it is man made and some of it
is due to natural disasters. The pain of loss – loss of loved
ones, loss of childhood home, loss of labour in the form of property,
crops, etc is crushing. Are we geared to meet the growing challenges
of these disasters?
The
Bible records many instances where individuals have lost everything
and experienced extreme pain. How did they respond? What lessons
can we pick up from their life experiences? There is a wealth
of wisdom in their life stories that we can use to make our work
in disaster situations more effective.
The
life of job is ever alive and touching all those who care to read
and learn.
Job
was a righteous man. Even God gave him a clean avowal. The suffering
that came upon him was not due to sin. Ironically it is more because
he was righteous. Much like the thousands of people who perish
and suffer in Tsunami type disaster. Think of the children and
simple people who go about their lives honestly without hurting
anyone. They and all of us can look to Job.
Read
Job1
Job
lost oxen and donkeys – beasts of burden. What do we
lose these days? Boats, tractors, farm equipment…basically
means of production. These are our modern day ‘oxen and donkeys’.
Hasn’t that happened in the Tsunami affected areas. Surely!
Job
lost all sheep. - Sources of food and clothing. Doesn’t
that happen these days. No wonder food and clothes are the first
relief items that are sent to disaster hit areas.
Job
lost all camels – Means of transport. This too happens
when disaster strikes us today. The roads are washed away. The
vehicles are destroyed. The entire transport system comes to a
halt. People are immobilized. No way to seek or receive help and
support.
Job
lost all servants – People are stripped of their support
systems. Everyone is to oneself. The abandonment is shattering.
Job
lost his sons and daughters – this causes extreme pain.
Future seems empty and everything seems to be in vain. It happens
in modern day calamities too.
Loss
is complete. Job lost everything he had and everyone close
to him. Not in one stroke like it happened in some natural disasters.
They happened in a series of disasters, blow after blow. The pain
was recurring and seemed like the forces were conniving to cause
maximum pain.
Perhaps
many of the Tsunami affected people can identify with Job in their
pain and suffering. Can they respond to God and to their suffering
and pain as Job did? How did Job respond?
Job
1:21 “ Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked
shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the lord.”
Job’s
response at first seems very cold and resigned. But linger a little
longer and you can almost hear him gush with praises to the Lord.
How did he manage this?
First:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall
I return there” When we remember our humble beginnings and
are focused on the inevitable and humbling departure from this
world, what happens in between falls in right perspective. If
we are caught up with what inevitably must be left behind, the
pain intensifies. Proper perspectives will lead to proper resolution.
Secondly:”
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name
of the Lord.” We should be clear that what we come to possess
and the family we have, are given by God. He has a right to take
them if He desires. He owns them and us.
Job
had this truth very clearly etched in his mind, so his heart was
not confused or despairing. He was actually praising. A man of
tremendous faith, indeed!
People
in pain have to deal with their own emotions. Added to that they
have to contend with taunts and ridicule from those close to them.
Sometimes these are said very unwittingly. Job’s wife asked
him to “ Give up his faith, curse God and die” Job 2:9
In times of crisis, faith takes a beating.
Thirdly,
Job is right on spot addressing the pain without attacking the
person. He responds: “Shall we accept good from God and not
trouble?” Job acknowledges the sovereignty of God and yields
to His will. Therefore, he is able to keep his faith.
Can
we share these truths with those who are affected in the disasters?
Very difficult. Reading about Job is quite different from relating
to people in flesh and blood in the midst of destruction. Three
friends of Job did their best to relate. Let’s see how they
did it.
Read
Job2: 11-13
Be
Friends: “Job Three friends . . . ..”
People involved in relief work and especially those who go to
comfort and counsel them should go as friends. Not as ‘experts’.
As someone said, “ I don’t care how much you know till
I know how much you care.” Friends care.
Be
sacrificial: “ they set out from their homes . . . .”
When you go to help, don’t go in your high heels. Be prepared
to rough it out. Like I discovered, be prepared to sleep in a
bunk bed in the hull of a boat that was running on an extended
lease of life. You are stepping out of your own zone of comfort.
You may have an ‘entry plan’, but be prepared to go
there with a flexible ‘exit plan’. It can mean two cancelled
flights, two cancelled sailings and still not being sure if you
would leave at the scheduled hour. You are at the mercy of the
weather and situations beyond your control.
Be
a team member: “ Met together by an agreement . . . .”
More than the victims, it is the care-givers who need maximum
care. You will be over drawn. You will be stretched. It is vital
to be a part of the support group that prays for one another.
Look out for one another. Serves one another.
Be
open: “ to sympathize and comfort the ….”
You are not going there to solve problems. Yes, to fix broken
pipes, lay roads, construct buildings is part of relief work.
But it is not the same as helping to pick up the pieces of broken
hearts and make meaning out of life. One must be sensitive, given
to the Spirit of God to comfort people. Nobody should go with
an attitude of fixing up people.
Be
Available: “they sat down with him on the ground seven
days and seven nights”
Don’t get involved if you are not available in a sustained
manner. For some people it is fascinating to get involved in Tsunami
type of work. But suffering people are not like museum exhibits
that one can touch and feel and come away feeling fascinated or
full of pity. One must go to be with them and remain silent if
need be like the three friends of Job for “they saw how great
his suffering was.”
Is
it good enough? Many people involved in relief will go with
the above values and principles. Everything seems to be so well
put and researched. Just like Job’s three friends they seem
to have figured out what needs to be done and they do it. They
seem to have figured out how to respond to people in disaster.
Their psychology seems to be perfect. But the big question is:
Was it adequate?
God doesn’t seem to think so. Can we do something more? What
is God saying that will give us that + to our work? God tells
us how. Read Job 42: 7-9
Twice
in those three verses He said, “You have not spoken of me
what is right as my servant Job has” In other words God doesn’t
fault their “psychology” but denounced their “theology.”
As Selwyn Hughes puts it “Right theology must come before
right psychology.”
Christian
counselors going to care and comfort those in disastrous situations
must have their theology right and then, only then, should they
make sure their “psychology” is proper and in harmony
with their theology. We should be spiritual and competent. Deity
and dust make a winning team.
For
without right theology we can never have proper answers to difficult
situations. Sometimes there are no answers. Right theology helps
us to accept a ‘no answer’ more gracefully. When we
do this, as in Job’s life, the Lord will bless the latter
days more than the days gone by.
People
don’t suffer because they have sinned or their fathers have
sinned but because the glory of God may be revealed. (Job 9:3)
That and that alone must be the attitude and goal in all relief,
rehabilitation and renewing work of Christ. Can we be God’s
instruments to reveal His glory to a despairing people? God being
our helper, we will. We have a living God in a living tragedy.
Samson
Gandhi
