01/14/2025
Today’s top headlines read:
- "Fires across the Los Angeles area have killed at least 24 people, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and scorched more than 60 square miles."
- "Officials said 92,000 people in Los Angeles County were under evacuation orders Monday morning. Curfews are in effect for the Palisades and Eaton fire zones from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m."
When such cataclysmic destruction occurs, we are all left asking the question, “Why?” “Why do these senseless, horrific tragedies continue to happen all over the world?”
Some immediately jump to the blame game to answer the “how” questions. “How did the fires start? How could this have been avoided? How can politicians and power brokers do a better job in preparing for worst-case scenarios?” And that’s understandable. We try to make sense of that which seems so senseless.
But others of us are drawn to the “why” questions. “Regardless of who’s to blame—if anyone can or should be blamed—why did God allow this to happen? Why doesn’t God do something to stop the suffering of those who have lost loved ones, houses, or businesses?”
Of course, there are no easy answers. There is no magic wand or silver bullet to make all our world’s problems disappear. We face an enigma where there is a mystery of competing claims: God’s goodness, God’s power, and the world’s brokenness. If God is good and has the power to overcome suffering, why doesn’t He?
We accept the fact that we can’t know the unknowable. Science provides answers to the natural world. Philosophy takes its turn at giving us the framework and tools to analyze and critique concepts of thought. Both science and philosophy have their place and fulfill a role.
But suffering, especially senseless suffering, goes beyond the realm of what is known to what is unknown, and it places us in the category of faith. Faith is not averse to science and philosophy. We all have faith assumptions in our application of science and philosophy. But in the category of purpose and meaning, science and philosophy—void of faith—are left wanting.
With faith, we acknowledge what it means to suffer because we understand what it is not to suffer. Without goodness, beauty, and truth, we would have no definition or grasp of the opposing categories of evil, ugliness, and falsehood. Evil is the absence of goodness, ugliness is the lack of beauty, and falsehood is void of truth.
And how does this help us with the “why” questions? It gives us the conviction that since we know there is goodness, beauty, and truth, there must be a Cause behind that reality. There must be an Originator who established the order of life, the universe, and all contained therein. There is the Author of Life (Acts 3:15), and all that He created is good (Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31).
The goodness of creation was marred by sin (Romans 8:22), and ever since that first occurrence, we have encountered evil, ugliness, and falsehood. But we remember, and we see at times glimpses of goodness, beauty, and truth, knowing that one day the God who created that goodness, beauty, and truth will once again make all things new (Revelation 21:5). Then there will be “no mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). And that includes no more fires that scorch 60 square miles and destroy people’s lives.
Through Jesus, the firstborn of this new creation, all goodness will overcome evil, all beauty will transform the ugliness of our world and pain, and all truth will triumph. Jesus is the One who reconciles “to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20). All creation, including you and I, groan for that day when evil will be defeated, and fires will exist no more. May we encourage one another all the more as we see that Day approaching (Hebrews 10:25).
