Sometimes you find wisdom in the most curious of places. I've been reading H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. It's taken me over a month to get about half way through the book. Yet that timed perfectly with this week's events. That's where I found Well's comment on God and disaster.
The narrator is talking to a curate (clergyman) after the Martians have attacked the city of Weybridge. The curate exclaims, "this is the beginning of the end." The narrator's response is... well see for yourself.
"You are scared out of your wits! What good is religion if it collapses under calamity? Think of what earthquakes and floods, wars and volcanoes, have done before to men! Did you think God had exempted Weybridge? He is not an insurance agent."
Insert New Orleans, Mobile, or Biloxi for Weybridge.
Are our expectations of protection from calamity justified? Where does this expectation come from? There is no where in the Bible that claims God will avert calamity for us. We are not protected from every harm. We look at Job and learn that bad things happen to good people and like Job we will never learn why. That may not be a satisfying answer but it is reality.
Meanwhile, those of us who are safe can still pray and send what assistance we can.
