Some families function like a slick ad campaign for successful Christian marriages: their histories boast the blessings of longevity and faithfulness. Other families are so speckled with dirt and dysfunction that God is nowhere to be found. But if you’re like me, you might find yourself surrounded by both.

I wish my family could have stuck with one story; it would make my theology so much simpler. If my Christian ancestors were twenty couples deep in 50+ years of happiness, then I could claim God’s promises to be true: that godly people are always blessed with strong, impenetrable marriages. Likewise, if my family boasted nothing but broken, banged-up fairytales, then I could claim without much opposition that the Bible’s mandates were nothing but an idealistic dream. 

But here I am this summer with multiple narratives in my head, none of them showing the kind of cause-and-effect I had expected as a child. 

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It’s been a tough week for those in the south pacific and south Asia. Let’s review:

*The Philippians: MANILA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - The Philippines ordered the evacuation of people living in low-lying coastal areas on Friday as a "super typhoon" threatened devastation a week after flash floods killed nearly 300 people in and around Manila. The Asia-Pacific region has been hit by a series of natural disasters in recent days, including Typhoon Ketsana which killed more than 400 in the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia.

*American Samoa: SIUMU, Samoa, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Rescuers fished bloated corpses from the South Pacific off Samoa and pulled bodies from the mud and twisted rubble of devastated islands as the death toll from a series of tsunamis neared 200 on Thursday.

*Indonesia: A powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Indonesian city of Padang on Sept. 30, trapping thousands under debris. A second quake, initially put at magnitude 6.8 but later revised down to 6.6, hit another part of Sumatra Island on Oct. 1, causing fresh panic. As of tonight the death toll is over 1,100. It is still climbing as search and rescue teams begin to break through the rubble looking for the hundreds of unaccounted for individuals.

If I were in the South Pacific at this very moment I might be thinking the world was coming to an end. Disaster after disaster has struck this region of our Earth just this week. There have been earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and monsoons. And, there have been people. These people had families and jobs.  These people had stories.  

Check out the island of Indonesia for just a moment. I started to count the number of casualties and the number of displaced and was quickly too overwhelmed to continue.

Disasters like what the south pacific and south Asian countries have experienced this week raise many questions among both followers of Christ and those who practice other faiths. The most prominent question that arises is to do with the problem of evil.

I was in graduate school north of Boston when the tsunami of 2004 hit Sumatra. I was taking a class called World Mission of the Church. My professor, Dr. Timothy Tennent (Dr. T, not to be mistaken with Mr. T) gave a sermon to a local church regarding the devastation. He shared his sermon notes with our class to help us make sense of that horrific event. It felt fitting to read it again in light of this weeks happenings. The following are pieces taken from his sermon.

Christians ask questions like:
Q. Were the people who died this week more sinful that people other parts of the world?
A. Of course not.
Q. Could God have stopped it?
A. Of course, He is sovereign over the whole universe.  If even a sparrow does not fall… Matthew 10:29
Q. Why didn’t God prevent it?
A. “Why is there any death and suffering at all?” And it has to be faced squarely by Christians, since we claim to have the answers to the true meaning of life, the universe and everything. God does not put a hedge around the world  - book of Job… Satan says, no wonder Job loves you, look how you have blessed and protected him… and God says, no, even if he loses everything… land his children, his health…he will still love me, because Job realizes, despite his wealth, that his hope is in God….

The disasters this week have all taken place in the heart of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Tsunami occurred in the heart of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism….(Indonesia is the largest Islamic country on the earth, Sri Lanka is the heart of Theravada Buddhism, Thailand is a Buddhist country, India is 85% Hindu……

Explore how other religions in the area would respond to the problem of evil….
Hindus say…  All is karma, impersonal law of cause and effect, due to bad karma in previous lifetimes…
Buddhists say…  life itself is an illusion
Muslims say…  it is the active direct will of Allah…   Allah is sovereign and you cannot question why?  He could have done it for pure sport if he choose to….

No one has said, “why did Krishna allow this?”  “Why did Allah allow this?”

The Christian answer to this is unique. A mystery really. First, this life is fleeting. We are fragile beings. We live in a world with a shelf life. Matt. 24:7, Ps. 102:25,26. Second, it puts life in perspective. Each day is a gift from God. Third, it reveals the hearts of men and women. Odd testimony to God’s sovereignty… no one has pointed a finger at me and said, why did you let this happen?  They point to God because they know he is an all powerful, sovereign God…. Fourth, it points us to the mystery of the crucified savior. God in Jesus Christ has entered into the world of suffering through the incarnation….. the problem of evil can only be met at the foot of the cross.

God does not give us an “answer” to the problem of evil.  He takes the mystery of the problem of evil and it is swallowed up by an even greater mystery… the suffering of his Son on the cross of Calvary, the only truly innocent sufferer.

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I am troubled because I feel blessed and cursed, simultaneously. Does God bring the good and the bad? If he does, I have a problem with God.

I hear at church, “God is in control. Do not fear.” Really, is he in control? Because what I see is a world out of control. John Calvin is going to roll over in his grave when I say this, but God is not in control. Because that God would have to be fine with evil to be in control of this mess.

Paul says that the creation and our very selves are subject to the corrupt world:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Rom 8:18–25 ESV)

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I'm not very good at prayer.  I would bet that almost every Christian would say that and mention that they wish they did one of two things better: 1) prayed more frequently or 2) prayed more passionately.  

I have a hard time when I'm put on the spot; almost as though someone is handing me a mic and saying, "Alright now, Nick, talk to your Creator."  I mumbled like an idiot when I got the courage to talk to Britney Spears one night - it can be even worse sometimes when I pray and really picture who I'm talking to (see verse 12 below).  

That's why I like to pray with the Bible open.  They're God's words, use them!  It's like Obama's teleprompter x 3,000,000,000.  I especially like to pray with the Psalms because they're worship-directed and use language that exalts God and humbles men.

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It left me scratching my head. You too?

Nadya Suleman’s octuplet story is part medical-miracle, part freak show for the millions of outsiders who nothing about her. I’m just like you, asking all the normal questions like How’d this happen? Are they healthy? and Who’s your daddy?

Once word got out that momma’s already raising half a dozen youngsters at grandma’s house, public philosophers flooded the blogosphere with a collective outrage. In time, we might know more, but for now such reproductive logic is beyond our comprehension.

After I skim the social questions (Are taxpayers left holding the diaper bag?) and the domestic questions (How do you run a 24/7 daycare?), I’m left with the God questions. You see, whenever I discover man tinkering beyond his natural reach, I find myself trying to sort out the sovereignty of God all over again, wondering how he can really be in control after all.

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