Editor’s note:
Rich Stearns, president and CEO of World Vision, US, recently returned from a trip to Haiti and provided this eyewitness account and spiritual reflection to Christianity Today.
Rich Stearns
Last week, I stood in the streets of Port au Prince Haiti weeping at the scope and scale of human suffering. Tens of thousands died—men, women, children, mothers, fathers, pastors, priests—no one was exempt.
Hundreds of thousands wandered stunned, hungry and homeless in the streets. While they survived the quake, the many aftershocks, and the lack of medical care, food, water and housing, still they had so much of their lives stripped away from them due to the destruction.
Who of us in these past days has not asked the question, “Where was God?” or “Why God?”
The sudden deaths of so many innocent people and the staggering human suffering that persists seem to mock the very notion of a loving God. There was another time that God was mocked in the face of suffering and evil. It happened on Calvary as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God’s own son, was spat upon, beaten, and hanged on a cross. And people asked: Where was God?
If he was God, why didn’t he save himself—why not prevent this suffering from happening—why not save the Jewish people from their bondage to Rome—why not face this evil and turn it back?
But God had another way. On that cross we are told that Jesus faced all the evil that ever was or ever would be. He took upon himself the sins of mankind, the evils of injustice, the pain of suffering and loss, the brokenness of the world. He felt every pain and took every punishment for every person who would ever live.
Christ is not distant from us in our times of suffering. He is not indifferent or detached. He does not look upon us from far away. He lies crushed under the weight of concrete walls. He lies wounded in the street with his legs broken. He walks homeless through the camps hungry. He weeps uncontrollably over the child who he has lost.
But where is hope? Where is justice for the dead, broken, and grieving of Haiti?
We need to see something not easily seen from human perspective. We, not God, are trapped in time. We, not God, see only in part and cannot yet see the whole. We, not God, must wait for that day when he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
We live in the “not yet.” But God sees the “already.”
How then should we think?
We see today and yesterday, not tomorrow. God sees all three at once. In him, those crushed in Haiti are alive already. In him, those orphaned in Haiti are reunited with family already. In him, those broken in Haiti are healed already. In him, those grieving in Haiti rejoice already. He is no distant God who turns his back on us. He is no callous God who sheds no tears. He is God, who shed his own blood for us.
Until that moment when the “not yet” and the “already” are brought together in God’s time, we are commanded to “love our neighbors as ourselves.” Until then, we are to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and grieve with the grieving.
We are to let our light so shine before others, that they might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven. As the apostle Paul wrote, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors …as though God were making His appeal through us.”
Until then, we must show forth God’s deep love for Haiti.
Posted by Tim Morgan on January 29, 2010 12:41PM
Comments
Jesus said: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."
We need to respond.
Read post over at Red Letter Belivers about this:
http://redletterbelievers.blogspot.com/2010/01/responding-to-disaster.html
Posted by: David @ Red Letter Believers at January 29, 2010
As much as I was encouraged by The Hole in Our Gospel, I am stunned by World Vision's support of a moratorium on adoptions from Haiti. I can't help but wonder whether the people who made that decision have ever actually been to Haiti, or seen Haitian children abandoned and dying, or seen Haitians begging Americans to rescue and adopt their children. I wonder if World Vision realizes that there were almost one half million orphans in Haiti BEFORE the earthquake. Despite the almost unbelievable suffering of Haitian children, and the fact that over 2 million American families are waiting to adopt children, only 301 Haitian orphans were adopted into the US in 2008. Meanwhile thousands of Haitian children continue to suffer and die of neglect.
I cannot believe World Vision, an organization I once respected, would take such a position.
Hope and justice for Haiti will begin with hope and justice for the suffering children there.
Posted by: Bill at February 1, 2010
The author implies that God's justice means here to rectify an evil that has occurred. I wonder, however, if we ought not to look at the event as God's justice in present time for sins of unbelievers (cf. Lk 13:1-5). The earthquake may well have been God's present judgment; the fact that not all perished indicates that God's grace has been manifested in giving these people another opportunity to repent. Christians must response in the same kind of love to go to Haiti and preach the gospel while alleviating the humanitarian need.
Posted by: Pastor Jim at February 2, 2010
How do any of you know that this is God's judgement? Did God tell any of you this?
So the Christians who also died in the quake - I guess He found them quite sinful as well, huh?
Posted by: Colin at February 2, 2010
With so much aid already given to Haiti I am reminded of the parable of the talents. Currently there are billions in aid that nobody can account for. I understand that we all want to help...but the World Bank just forgave Haiti of all of it's debt. Basically you just forgave a few corrupt dictators of all the money they stole
what is the bible
Posted by: Andrew at February 5, 2010
Andrew, I believe your information is wrong. There have not been billions given to Haiti yet. So there cannot be billions unaccounted for. Even the US closest major country and the largest donor has not reached $1 billion government and private combined.
Posted by: Adam Shields at February 5, 2010
Great analysis of what HAS BEEN, but I'm left wondering what SHOULD BE the way forward now the Haiti has the world's attention?
Posted by: Scaffold boards at February 7, 2010
In response to the criticism of World Vision's temporary moratorium on adoptions in Haiti, you may want to read the statements by World Vision, Save the Children, & the British Red Cross in regards to their decision.
Here is an excerpt:
Justin Byworth, World Vision’s Chief Executive, said:
“The extreme poverty in Haiti already makes children extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, and new unregulated adoptions could open the door to child traffickers. Children should not be leaving Haiti at this stage except with surviving family members or if adoptions already in process have full required legal documents. We are concerned not only about premature overseas adoption but also about children increasingly being sent unaccompanied to the Dominican Republic.”
for the rest of the statements, check out: http://www.worldvision.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.3470
World Vision was in Haiti, serving these very children, long before this earthquake hit, and will be there long after the media has turned it's attention elsewhere. It is their job to care for hurting, vulnerable children. I am confident that this decision in their best way of trying to do just that for the precious, irreplaceable children of Haiti.
Posted by: Heather at February 7, 2010
Earthquake in Haiti
A shaking
And quaking
Buildings crumbling
And falling.
Chaos appalling.
Children dying
Crushed mothers calling;
Families destroying.
John Humphreys said, “Why?”
(A bishop tried to reply).
“If God is all powerful
Loving and merciful,
Why didn’t He stop or prevent,
Rescue or circumvent
The terror of the quake
For Haitians’ sake?”
We can blame the builders,
Politicians, town planners,
The West for insufficient aid,
Corruption, or warnings delayed.
But the Today programme’s question
The implicit suggestion
And the Bishop’s rambling reply
Still raises the issue, ‘But why?’.
There’s a puzzling mystery:
Imperfection and entropy,
Suffering, decay, seismic disruption
Are all part of our present condition.
The whole of Creation
Cries out for redemption:
A New Heavens and Earth
The universal rebirth.
Haiti : The Cross Remained…..
The cross remained.
The foundations un-destroyed.
Yet all around crumbled,
The buildings tumbled,
Shaking and quaking,
The crushing, and choking;
The agony; the void.
Children bloodied
At their mother’s breast.
Hundreds, maybe thousands,
All perished.
Hospitals were overwhelmed.
Society’s infrastructure?:
A disruptive rupture.
In the Haitians’ pains
The Cross remains.
Where was God
For this nation?
Did He just wind-up
Then step-back
From His Creation?
Was this a punishment
For the sins of
A previous generation?
What of the statement
“If you live on ‘fault’ lines
There as seismic
Consequences
Not judgement for
Moral offences”?
At this mystery’s heart
The Cross plays a part.
At the very nadir
Of our human condition,
God enters, identifying
With agony and pain.
Through Redemptive suffering..
Maybe we can’t explain..
The ‘why’s’ that keep swarming.
They don’t fly away
But inspire our actions
For suffering today.
Posted by: brianwakeman at February 28, 2010
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