I’ve been asking myself this question a lot lately and some days, I have different answers than others (leave, give up, cry, yell and just be faithful). These are just a few of the myriad of emotions I feel all the time; I don’t think it helps being 7 1/2 months pregnant! But lately I have been trying to analyze the biblical answer to this question. When faced with trial after trial after trial, how did some of the people in the bible respond to God. There are many examples we can draw from: Moses, Job, and Elijah are just to name a few. In the face of suffering, I think we can choose 3 things: we can reject God, we can harden our hearts toward Him or we can be broken by Him.
God doesn’t do these things because He is mean or unfair. On the contrary, I think it is because He wants us to change and He wants to use this experience for our growth and renewal. So now that really has me thinking, what is God’s plan for Haiti? What is the purpose of all this suffering? I don’t know.. I don’t have the answers but I do have a choice in how I respond to the events taking place here. I can’t begin to explain to you how frustrating, and heartbreaking it is for me to watch Haiti be afflicted by cholera, and have the election be called a fraud. All this in the aftermath of an earthquake! But I know I won’t reject God, because He has already won that battle with me. I pray that my heart will not be hardened towards Him, so that leaves the only option of Him breaking me and Haiti and using this experience to change us and shape us for the better. This is not easy and it is painful but I’ve already seen the transforming powers of God in my life and I pray that I will see them in Haiti as well.
