Sometimes it's difficult to explain to people why I believe in God, and sometimes it gets a lot easier. After natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti, or even man-made disasters like the Holocaust or 9/11, many people question the existence of God, or worse, they question whether God is good. I certainly understand why they might feel that way, but I often wish that I could point out to them more examples of God's righteousness intervening and improving the world. Enter the incredible story of the 33 Chilean miners.
Of course, you don't have to look at this story and see the Hand of God at work. You might instead say that human beings devised the tunnel that sent food, clothing, medicine, and other supplies
down to the trapped miners. Rather than praise God, you might prefer to challenge God, demanding to know why God would allow these men to be trapped 2,400 feet below ground for 69 days!! To me, however, this is an opportunity for us to feel God's Presence,
rather than once again pushing God away. God didn't trap those men inside the mine; other people chose to ignore the warning signs, and decided not to create a safe working environment for their employees. God doesn't force us to make good choices rather than stupid, greedy, unsafe ones. We, as human beings, have to take responsibility for the circumstances we create on this planet. And we have to force ourselves to care about the security and well-being of the people around us.
God, in turn, helps us out along the way. God gives us confidence,
support, encouragement, hope, and the energy to keep going. For some of us, it's the strength to keep working every day to provide for our families. For others, it's the hope and courage to survive for two and a half months trapped underground. How can we possibly imagine what these people endured? Yet somehow they persevered. They demonstrated how unbelievably strong individuals can be, and what a group of people working together can truly accomplish. And anyone who watched the scenes of families being reunited was filled with a sense of warmth, spirituality, and overwhelming joy. Seeing couples hug or parents kissing newborn children was pure life on display!
In services on Thursday morning, we decided to read Psalm 130 in honor of the rescued miners. The psalm begins, "A song of ascents. Out of the depths I call to you, Adonai. Adonai, hear my cry, heed my plea." I thought it expressed a fitting emotion for this occasion. People may have built the machines that drilled the holes, provided aid, and ultimately rescued those workers. But permeating all the work of human hands, all the love and support poured into TV monitors, and the letters sent down through "pigeon" tubes; that is where we find God.
Peter Hitchens, brother of famed atheist
Christopher Hitchens, recently said in an NPR interview that religion is like the magnetic north on a compass. Rather than relying entirely on our own sense of morality to guide our lives, sometimes we need a more objective measure - like a compass. I like that image. Most of us may not deal with compasses too often. We use GPS, or we just stay in the same places we know, and don't ever look for help with directions. But when we reach out to ask for help, and when we look to find our way, a compass can indeed help point out where we need to go. In Chile, I saw the compass in action, and I watched people following where it told them to go. And I was deeply, deeply moved.
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