Why God Has Brought Disaster

A couple weeks ago I got a publication in the mail that talked a bit about how generous the American public has been for some of the disasters that have taken place in the last several years.  The Tsunami in Asia; the hurricanes, first in Florida, then Louisiana.  I started thinking again about Pat Robertson and his ridiculous statements about God punishing Louisiana and something hit me.  Maybe God is trying to wake us up.

There has been a lot of talk today about Bono and his speech/sermon at the Presidential Breakfast.  One line in particular stood out to me.

This is not about charity in the end, is it? It’s about justice, the good news yet to come. Look what happened in Southeast Asia, with the tsunami. 150,000 lives lost to Mother Nature. Well, in Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month, a tsunami every month, and it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe.

When the tsunami first hit, I found myself a little indifferent.  It’s not that I didn’t care that all those people died; it’s just that we were in the middle of talking about our 30 hour famine.  One of the stats I learned from the 30-hour famine was that 29,000 kids a day die from preventable disease/conditions like malnutrition.  Here were all these celebrities raising and giving money because 150,000 people died, and yet we don’t seem to give a crap about 29,000 kids a day, about 150,000 lives every month in Africa.

We in America live rather selfish lives.  We like to give to big causes but can’t seem to be bothered by day-to-day problems.  The Red Cross got too much blood and money during the aftermath of 9-11, but struggles to operate through normal crises that occur regularly.

Maybe God has allowed disaster to strike us, because it is the only way to make us give a crap about the people around us.