Tough Questions

This year our harvest appeal is once again going to support the work of BMS World Mission. BMS World Mission is the overseas mission branch of the Baptist church. To find out more about BMS click here. This year's appeal is called 'Higher Ground' and is going to support the work that BMS and local Christian organisations are doing in Indonesia following the tsunami of 2004 and the earthquakes of 2005. These groups are involved in reconstructing lives and communities as well as buildings and villages. To read more about the 'Higher Ground' appeal click here.

Natural disasters on such a massive scale always raise theological questions. 'Where was God?' 'Why did God allow it to happen?' I'm not sure that there are any really simple satisfactory theoretical answers to such huge questions that can be offered by those on the outside. Even to begin to find an answer requires a whole worldview - an understanding of the beginning and the end of all things, and then all that goes on in between.

I think that the most satisfactory answers come from those on the inside, who have experienced the turmoil first hand, who have struggled with the loss and the pain, and who have found that even in the darkness God was there. And whilst they may not have answers to their questions, their experience remains - God was there.

There is a sense in which each of us can only speak from our own experience. All I can offer is my experience. I know at the points in my life where things have been in turmoil, those points where life has hung in the balance, those times when I have asked 'why', there has been an overwhelming awareness of the presence of God and the peace that He promises.

But our experiences can encourage others for God is the same today, as He was yesterday, as He will be tomorrow. The Bible was written by ordinary people who God used. It relates their experiences and how they made sense of them. The Psalms provide responses to the highs and lows that life has to offer. Psalm 46 was written by someone who knew what it was like to experience turmoil and yet know that God is our refuge and help. How in the storms of life it is possible to 'Be still, and know that I am God'.

Share your experiences as an encouragement to others.