Archive article 15

Is the earthquake in Haiti a traffic light which is red?

 

 I have to admit that I just don’t like traffic lights when they are red. Especially when you stop and there’s car or pedestrian in sight!!  Why not act as if you were in the USA where, at a red light, after stopping, if nothing is coming and no pedestrian crossing, you can at least turn right!  The red traffic light is really my ‘uuugggghhh’  moment in life – especially early Sunday morning when there’s not even a cat around!  My mind rambles complainingly on;  “ Why do you have to stop for this inappropriate red light when you can see that nothing’s coming and there’s so little traffic anyway?!”   

 

And yet I do realize that traffic lights are really a necessity for the safety of traffic circulation. If we didn’t have them how many accidents would there be!  They really are a warning that ahead there is a potential danger, and the red light forces me to not only think about possible danger but to take action to avoid it.  I have to stop.  It doesn’t seem like that when it’s early morning or late at night and all the lights happen to be green and I go sailing down the road – but in reality all I need is one distracted motorist to not see the light and a terrible accident with irreversible consequences could so easily take place,

 

I’m seriously wondering if the recent earthquake which destroyed Port-au-Prince in Haiti isn’t something like a red light from God calling us, as a world,  to Stop. It surely is something the nation of Haiti could have done without. No nation wants something as terrible as that.  From a merely human vantage point it seems quite unfair for something as tragic as this to happen adding suffering on suffering to Haiti which for so many years has only known suffering!

 

But the colour of this particular traffic light isn’t green.  It’s red.  And I believe we must listen to what God says about human life when such massive “Stop” light blocks our roadway. God is forcing us to stop and not go on as if He didn’t exist.  A Bible text which I read this week says:

 

“We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers.  Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.”

 

If I’m young, in good health, with a good secure employment and a family life which is happy, I really don’t think much about the fragility of life. That only happens when there’s an earthquake of such immense proportions that I can’t ignore it.  Instead of whizzing down life’s road with all green lights encouraging me to speed on, I’m suddenly forced to stop. How many seconds did it take for government buildings, royal palaces to crash down?  Just two days ago I learned of a dear person who has medically been informed that she has less than 3 months to live. It seems totally impossible. I’ve only know this person as a capable mother of a stable family, with a loving husband and a life which seems almost perfect. Now, quite out of the blue comes this massive red light which communicates exactly what the biblical text expresses: “we are aliens and strangers”. And this actually is nothing new. All of humanity, even  “our forefathers” , lived with the same precariousness. “Here today – gone tomorrow” wasn’t coined without a knowledgeable reference point! 

 

 I am profoundly moved and thankful for the massive humanitarian effort which from around the world has been poured out on Haiti. Certainly the earthquake has had the effect of awakening a compassion of incredible dimensions which hopefully will really give Haiti the chance of a new beginning making it much stronger.  But at the same time, it is also a massive red light.  It confirms everything the Bible teaches about the transient nature of all of life:

“Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope”.

Although it doesn’t look like it, even the most powerful human being or nation is equally as fragile and fleeting as the weakest.

 

 In front of this red light of immense human disaster we are not only called to reflect but to act:

 

“Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom. . . satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love. . .” (Psalm 90)

 

The only secure place on planet earth is in His hands. Let’s listen to His warnings and seek Him with all our hearts.

 

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

                      will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91¹)

 

isn’t this exactly what Jesus said when he said;

             

                       “Come to me . . . Iwill give you rest” (Matthew 11²⁸)

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                                                                                 Pastor Paul Finch