The Perfect Storm

1 Cor 15:26

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

The sinking of the HMS Bounty and the death of one of the crew members and the presumed death of the Captain, provides an illustration into the nature of tragedy. Although there are no easy theological answers, the Bible does provide illumination in understanding such events. Let us call it a box, four sides.

First, we grasp that the world is full of trouble. From beginning to end, the Scriptures are entirely honest about death and destruction. The Bible in many ways is a brutal and beautiful book, it mirrors reality. No Pie in the Sky, its telling of human history is unflichingly honest. God tells us the Truth. Life is hard and harsh at times. More like stars and scars. There is blood in the book, there is blood on the book.

Second, some tragedies are of our own doing. The Bounty set sail trying to outrun Hurricane Sandy and got caught instead by it. We are given real choices with real consquences. We often don't get what we deserve, either good or ill, but sometimes there is a strong correlation between choices and consequences, if not out and out cause and effect. Those who sail ships, particularly in hurricanes, are engaged in a risky venture, as are those who live in shore communities and eathquake fault lines. Tragedy also provides an opportunity for those of the Faith to demonstrate the reality of the Gospel. Meeting needs points to the meeting of our greatest need, the forgiveness of sins.

Third, there is an element of unknowing in tragedies where it appears it is just a turn of fate that makes the difference. We had no choice, we were just given circumstances. I almost died at birth, and believe me, for a lot of years I wondered why that happened to me with the outplaying of the neurological consequences. Coming into life almost dying has certainly impacted how I see things. I fortunately have no conscious memory of not being able to breathe with double pneumonia and that is something I take solace in as a grown man. It would be too horrific to remember. The contemplation of not being able to breathe scares me more than most because of my first experiences in this world.     

Fourth, we all will die sooner or later, the means of and by which will be sad. Death is an enemy that none of us will escape. It is our destiny from the day we are born. The clock starts to tick and will one day run down to our last breath. The Bible teaches that there is eternal life and eternal death, and both the eternal life and eternal death are permanent and personal conditions. If a person is a Christian, 99.9 percent of your worries should be put to rest. If a person is not, 99.9 percent of your worries await after this life concludes. What happens down here--although real and raw--is only the first step of a journey that shalll never conclude. I am being charitable to assign this life's value of trouble at .01 percent. In light of eternity, that is statistically not tenable. What is crazy about the .01 and our reaction spiritually to it, is that it determines the remaining 99.9%.  

I obviously don't know why God bothered to create the Universe. It certainly seems, at times, to be a cruel game where there are many losers. God has not given us the ability to see the end from the beginning and to sit in judgement as a jury on the ways and means of Providence.  We are creatures who have the capacity to ask these questions, but not the Deity to obtain ultimate answers now and perhaps forever.  Our questioning shows the image of God in us. Our lack of final answers shows that it is just an image and not the infinite ultimate. A shadow more than anything.

Yet, God is shown as partaking in the shadowy sufferings of a Fallen world, and not sitting idly by as the sun. Instead, He himself stepped into the box of this wicked and troubled world, took the nails, and bore the Cross, and died, redeeming dead men and women, disarming evil, and triumphing over the last enemy. Death itself. The grave was opened from the inside of the box and light shone out of the darkness. The Perfect in the Storm.