Haiti

In Haiti,
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34"For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?"
35"Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?"
36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. - Romans 11:33-36

Our progressive American minds search in vain for answers to the terror we have seen in the sea to the south. We trace the history and a contemporary evil culture and we say, “Aha, this is judgment.” We trace the science and our great discoveries and we say, “Aha, I told them a quake would result from this fault.” We trace the political and sociological environment of power and poverty and we say, “Aha, injustice is judged.” But all of our searching and seeming discoveries are in vain. For, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

It is him who we know not his mind, it is him whom we can give no gift, it is him from whom and through whom and to whom are all things, it is the unsearchable God who gags us.

But it is not him who binds us. What binds our emotions in the stale unfeeling heart, what binds our minds from creative thinking toward our neighbors, what binds our hands and feet from running with our crosses to their aid, what binds our purses from opening to those in need? We see the scenes of our neighbor’s horror, pain and sickness even when the screen is blank and yet we are bound to the joys of our health, our comfort, our peace and our safety. It is not him who binds us, it is the fact that we have not really seen him that is what binds us.

It is not the scenes of horror that unbind us or freedom from our unfeeling soul. It is seeing him who rules in the midst of Haiti. It is seeing him who has come to rule in the midst of the horror of our lives. It is seeing him who came and took on the horrors of hell as our substitute. It is seeing him who became poor that we might become rich. It is seeing him who thirsted that we might drink from the streams of life. It is seeing him who was broken that we might be healed. It is seeing him who was buried that we may not taste death. It is seeing him who in infinite power was raised and now rules that we may know his power in pain and weakness. It is seeing the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ that unbinds us and fashions us with joy under our cross to go to our neighbors in their weakness.

Haiti needs God who is the gospel. The same God who has slain them in the dust can bind up their brokenness in his redeeming grace. In the streets of Haiti there is wailing and weeping, but in the midst of those cries there are the sounds of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs being sung by those who are making melody in their hearts to the Lord in the midst of their suffering. Hillary Clinton is right in one sense this is “Biblical”. It is Biblical that there are those who count it all joy when they face various trials because they know the God of the gospel. May the God who is the gospel gag us and unbind us in the face of Jesus Christ that we may pray, give, go, cry, and sing for and with our neighbors.