God is always with us (From Warrington Guardian)

God is always with us

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, believes the Asian tsunami disaster will test people's faith in God.

It is a stance that the Rev Michael Cavanagh understands, but one that he does not share.

Here the vicar, who preaches at churches in High Legh and Tabley, explains why he will always believe in God even in the face of overwhelming tragedy

IT is a habit now. Every Sunday morning I log on to the BBC's Internet website to make sure I'm aware of anything that may have happened overnight that needs a response in our prayers.

On Boxing Day the news was bad. 'Over 500 believed killed by freak wave in Asia,' it said.

You wonder how to respond to a disaster like that. What could you say to people who had lost loved ones?

How can you still talk of a loving God in the face of such a tragedy?

If He has the power to stop things like that happening why did He let it happen?

As we now know, it wasn't just 500 people who were killed - it was at least three hundred times that many.

But that doesn't alter the question or make it harder to answer. It's not the size of the disaster that demands a reply; similar thoughts arise after any tragedy.

The parents of the child killed by a falling tree in Dunham Massey on New Year's Day hurt just as much as anyone who has lost a loved one to an accident or an act of nature - and they have the right to ask the same things of those of us who profess faith in a loving, all-powerful God.

Our prayers are for them as well; we are one with all those who are bereaved, for all we who share this small planet are of one family.

A philosopher once put forward three propositions. 1) God is all powerful. 2) God is good 3) Terrible things happen.

It is easy to match any two of these, he said, the dilemma is in matching all three.

'Any decent religion must face the question squarely, and no answer is credible that cannot be given in the presence of dying children.'

I accept this.

What follows is a personal opinion offered in the hope of bringing comfort, not as a Christian apologetic or a piece of evangelistic sermonising.

I believe that it would be impossible for us to know joy and love, unless we also know pain, loneliness, suffering and loss.

Experiencing these is an essential part of our growing.

If parents, out of love for their child and a desire for its safety, wrap it up in cotton wool, never let it out of their sight, forbid it to play with anything other than soft toys which have been thoroughly disinfected, never let go of its hand, the child will never learn to walk, let alone reach maturity and bring up children of its own.

If it does not learn how to respond to danger, it will never know how to avoid it.

So it is with us in our world.

The one thing that our Father God wants for us more than our safety is our freedom; freedom to grow, to be truly human.

And that desire must override His longing to protect us on this earth.

Otherwise, we are just puppets, with no free will, living in a sickly utopia where nothing ever goes wrong because nothing ever happens at all.

And His refusal to intervene in our growing can have no degree or limit.

If there were no tsunamis, we would never know that their absence was because He had prevented them.

If we lived in a world where accidents never happened, where everything was predictable, where could God's intervention end?

How long would it be before I was complaining about trivia?

"God cannot possibly love me because if He did, He wouldn't allow my hair to go grey."

"If God can do anything, then why didn't He make me as good a singer as Pavarotti?"

We are who we are.

God gives us many gifts, but of these the two most special are our uniqueness and our freedom.I truly cannot see how else He could show His love for us, other than by giving these two things - and then protecting us from their consequences.

One reason why He sent His Son Jesus Christ is to pick us up when we fall, and allow us to try again, as we do when a toddler is learning to take its first steps.

The second reason is to show us that death, despite its sorrow and hurt, is not the end; that He has defeated death itself.

And it is this - my faith in Resurrection - which allows me to continue to proclaim the Gospel in the face of tragic accident and natural disaster. Even though we shed tears alongside all who mourn, we see through the tears to the light beyond.

Without Resurrection, Christianity is simply a code of ethics.

But with Resurrection, it gives comfort, strength and hope no matter how dark the night may be.

But Scripture makes it clear that faith cannot stop there, in some sort of self-satisfied isolation. True faith has to be lived, put into action.

So we have a clear Christian duty to share what we have and to give whatever we can to support the recovery of the affected region - without forgetting that there are other disasters which we cannot ignore.

Please don't make your giving to the appeal something you do instead of giving to the other charities, large and small, which deserve our help. Please, please, give in addition to your normal giving, not instead of.

And finally, even if you don't agree with a word of what I have said so far, let me say this.

World poverty, which kills more each year than 100 earthquakes, isn't an act of God, but a failure of man to act.

I hope that everyone in this community, of whatever faith or none, will unite in this year's Make Poverty History campaign.

For our refusal, or our apathy, must too be given in the presence of dying children.