The recent tsunami that hit Indonesia and surrounding islands, as well as the death of former NFL All Pro Reggie White while not yet 45 years old, both struck like a bolt out of the blue. Such events draw a person toward contemplation of some of the "deeper issues" of life. I am no different and the following are some of my thoughts on each event. A natural disaster and an early death by no means unheard of events, though they are thankfully rare. My thoughts in no way are a comprehensive treatment of each event, but instead are what came to my mind while considering each occurance.
Tsunami
Death is always tragic. No matter how it happens, no matter when. The tsunami that killed 150,000 certainly is on a larger scale. Whenever one of these events happens, it is immediately stated that God did not cause the tragedy. I agree. God did not desire for a tsunami to kill 150,000 people. God is certainly good. However, we should keep in mind that each person on this planet dies. And the scriptures tell us that this is the punishment for sin, meeted out because man would descend to too great of evil if his life was not cut short. So, yes, in a very real sense God has imposed a death sentence on each of us. The sentence is just, we deserve it because of our rebellion and inherent selfishness. You and I will receive the same sentence as the tsunami victims. The only question is when. It may come early in life for me or you, or later. Either way, the same event occurs. In this sense, the tragedy in Indonesia is only different in the fact that a rare natural disaster was the cause of death, and that mass death was the result. Saying this about the tsunami tragedy is not an attempt to minimize it. Certainly the victims must be helped as soon as possible. Rather, my point is that each human life ends a death that is either meaningless (if there is no God), tragic (if there is a God, and human life ends in oblivion or worse), or somehow happily in redemption (if there is a God, and God has provided a way out of our predicament). The tsunami and other events like it serve, as C.S. Lewis said, as "God's megaphone" that each life ends--the unhappiest ending possible if God has not provided a way out of it. This is the situation we face, and this is the fact that should help to frame all of our thinking about what life is about, and what sort of life we should lead.
Reggie White
In the aftermath of Reggie White's death from a breathing condition in his sleep, many articles were written that extolled his strong Christian faith during his playing career. The articles detailed how he attempted to lead many of his fellow teammates into living moral lives, not sleeping around on their wives, managing their money, staying clean from illegal substances and more. Comment was also made on White's attempts to help the poor in his native Tennessee, including trying to rebuild churches for many of the poor. However, what was not discussed in many of these articles is the fact that White appeared to have lost his Christian faith after the churches that White helped rebuild for the poor were burned down--by their own congregants in an insurance scheme. He was searching the scriptures in Hebrew at the time of his death, to try and find otu the truth for himself, since he felt that what he had been tought about God in his Christian churches was not accurate or sufficient. White could not reconcile the teaching that Christ changes the heart of those who accept him with the sinfulness and hypocrisy of that he saw. I cannot say that White was not right to seriously doubt the truthfulness of the Gospel when looking at the actions of Christ's followers, and we will never know what Reggie White's studies would have led to. However, I think in the end, his reaction resulted from a misunderstanding of what God is doing in this world. That some Christians are hypocrites does not mean that all are. Additionally, almost all Christians continue to struggle with temptation and sin. It is called free will. If we want to rebel, God lets us enjoy the rotten fruit of our rebellion. Perhaps Reggie had not fully come to terms with this fact. We cannot be sure. What we do know is this: Christians who White tried to help, through their greed and duplicity, not only swindled Reggie White and others who helped them, but also were the catalyst for his loss of faith. It serves as a good example of how our sin and failure to live as Christ has called us can have negative consequences that we cannot anticipate, and can harm others in ways we cannot imagine. All the more important that we try to avoid such actions and pray for forgiveness and blessings on others when we do fall short.
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