How can a loving, all powerful God allow the earthquake in Haiti?

Watching the devastation in Haiti leaves one with many emotions. Some of the images we see on television and the web are just too gruesome and horrifying to look at. As we process everything, most of all us are left asking the question - “why?”. Why would such an unfortunate catastrophe take place in a country that has already been ravaged by such misfortune throughout its history? For horrific events such as war and acts of violence, we can at least blame human beings: leaders of countries and select groups of individuals. For natural disasters, there is no finger to point at mankind - only at nature (from an atheistic point of view) or to a higher being: God. How can anyone reconcile belief in an all powerful and loving God with the images that we have seen coming out of Port-au-Prince?

I am not going to try play God and provide analysis as to what he was thinking (unlike a famous tele-evangelist who insinuated that the Haitians were receiving their punishment from God for taking part in voodoo over the centuries). There is a personal and loving God that exists, and I am not he. The God of the Bible, in my opinion, is beyond my highest thoughts and wildest imaginations and it is not my or anybody else’s responsibility to try to rationalize his actions. It would be like a three year old child trying to provide advice to his or her parents on an important career move. However, I would like to describe three key points that provide me with reassurance in the face of suffering: 1) there is a God who understands our sufferings; 2) there is an afterlife that awaits and 3) there is a resurrection.

I believe God understands our sufferings because that is essentially what his son did for us. The perfect Christ suffered a grueling death on the cross - a death that he didn’t merit in the slightest. As numerous eyewitnesses at the time can account for, some 2000 years ago Christ took the sufferings that we as human beings deserved. He suffered far more than human suffering or death - he endured cosmic rejection (unjustified separation from God) in bearing the sins of all mankind. Any reading of the gospels will describe in detail Christ’s sufferings on earth. We read that Christ cried out to God “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” We see an image of a man who was in great agony and sleep deprived, knowing that his death was imminent. We read in the gospel of Mark that “his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death”. God, through Christ as part of the triune God, didn’t just stay up in the heavens, completely detached, and robotically call the shots. He endured human suffering - for us. Just as we are asking “why”, so too did Christ. He can indeed empathize with our current sufferings.

In addition, there is hope that a better life awaits us - a life in heaven free from the pain, evil and suffering of this current life here on earth. Our lives are just like a drop in a bucket in comparison to eternity. Regardless of our quality of life and the number of years we spend on this earth, we all will die. There is hope in the Christian message that there is a place where all of our daily sufferings will be alleviated.

After Christ’s death, the gospel of Matthew details how, following an earthquake of all things, an angel appeared before Jesus’ mother and her friend to inform them of the good news - the Christ had risen. Following his brutal death, Christ would rise again and walk the earth for a few weeks, enabling masses of people to see for themselves his wounds, before ascending into heaven. As a result of his death and resurrection, Christ made it possible for us to have this eternal life described in the paragraph above. The apostle Paul noted that: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” This fulfilled the prophet Isaiah’s proclamation about Christ’s death (which most scholars believe was written 8 centuries before Christ): “He will swallow up death for all time.” There is a resurrection that overcomes death. And we all have access to be a part of this resurrection.

It is important that we all come to an understanding of the problem of suffering and evil. It is not just a problem for a person of faith. Anybody, regardless of their beliefs, needs to come to an understanding about the problem of suffering vis-à-vis his or her own worldview.

It is most difficult to fully understand sufferings on earth, especially with our human perspectives and understanding. Most of us have never endured anything near to the pain and suffering that the people of Haiti are going though at this very moment. I am writing about suffering as I sit comfortably on my sofa in one of the richest and safest countries in the world. That said, it is for some of the reasons above that I believe that I don’t have to guess God’s motives for the sufferings mankind endures on earth. And it is for the reasons above that we can believe that there is a living hope beyond our earthly sufferings.