It’s stories like this that just tear your heart apart. There’s not much one can say and you can’t rationalize it in any way – bad things happen and good people are victimized through no fault of their own. It’s just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What really bothers me about tragedies like this is that people with their own agendas will use them to further their own arguments, as if that makes any difference. You get that idiot senator from Rhode Island using it as an argument for man-made global warming, reinforcing my belief that most, if not all, politicians are as dumb as a bag of rocks. And, you inevitably get athiests asking believers where their God was during this event (as if they themselves think they know anything about the God they profess to not believe in). And you get faithful believers who will say stuff like, “there but for the grace of God go I”, as if God preference was with them but somehow not with the victims. Even worse, there are Christians who will say this kind of thing is God’s punishment for things we have done as a nation and a culture, as if senselessly killing children and innocents is God’s unique form of retribution.
I despise anyone who uses this kind of thing for any kind of political or religious messaging because it just shows how ignorant people can be.
The fact of the matter is that none of us know God’s will, but I firmly believe God has a bigger scope and bigger things in mind than re-directing a tornado so it hits, say, an empty 7-11 store instead of an elementary school full of children. We only hear about these kinds of tragedies because it takes place in a country and culture where media is omnipresent; for idiots who think today’s Moore tornado was the worst in history ought to do at least a little homework in order to see that tornado outbreaks in the middle of the U.S. are heardly unusual and it all comes down to technology (and the lack thereof) and being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I don’t mean to make light of the victims of the Moore tornado – far from it, but the fact is death is all around us, even more so if you live in Tornado Alley during the late winter and spring months when killer tornadoes are hardly a rare occurrence. And by its very nature – after all, human beings are instilled with an innate preference of life over death – death is something most people encounter without a lot of anticipation and joy. And while we mourn the deaths of those in Moore and pray for God’s comforting and healing presence on the surviving families and loved ones because of Monday’s tornado, when you get right down to it there’s no difference between their deaths and anyone else’s thousands of miles away as a result of war, disease, religious intolerance and even abortion. Death is death, it’s not a question of if but when and how, who you are, how much you are loved and by whom, and how and by whom you will be remembered in this life. For the believer and non-believer, unplanned death remains the great equalizer – the comfort for us believers comes in the faith that a loving God will surely take care of things in the next.
As a Christian I believe there is a better place beyond this and God has a way or sorting things out in the end. Of course, if the joke is on me and I’m wrong and the atheists are right, then it doesn’t really mattrer, does it? But it doesn’t stop me from saying my prayers tonight for the victims and survivors of that tornado in Moore, OK yesterday. The folks there need our prayers and our support, and as lovers of life itself, how can we not offer anything less to those so much in need of our help. And here’s how you can help.
To those not interested in helping out in any way and or using this tragedy to showcase your own ignorance, keep your opinions and stupid beliefs to yourselves and try not to live up to my expectations. I really have no patience or tolerance for the likes of you.
