Tornadoes, Towers and Tragedies

This spring is quickly approaching one of the deadliest on record in our country. So far over 100 people have lost their lives to twisters meandering through the Midwest and heartland of our nation. In addition to the metereological questions arising as to the cause, ontological questions arise when people ask, “What did they do to deserve this?”

There has been since nearly the beginning of time the thought that pain, suffering and tragedy are just recompense for a life misspent. If you encounter bad things, you must have done something to deserve it.

Yesterday in our small group discussion we discovered the same kind of thinking that was around in Jesus’ day. He referred to a contemporary event that most of his audience knew about: “Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no!”(Luke 13:4,5).

Tragedy has nothing to do with guilt. It may cause guilt, especially what we call “survivors’ guilt.” But, tornadoes leveling neighborhoods and towers crushing people have nothing to do with recompense or somehow people getting paid back what they are owed.

We live in world where senseless, needless and irrational tragedies abound. The cyclone in Myanmar, and now more lives are being lost because of authorities keeping a tight control on relief efforts. I do not claim to know the answer to all of this. It is a crazy world we live in.

Here is the only thing I do know: what makes sense, and what is needful and what is most rational is this—I live a repentant life, guilt-free because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Then no matter the tragedies that surround me, I know that I am in the hands of a loving Father whose heart breaks too when these things happen.

In Christian love, Curtis

Don't Scramble, Prioritize!

Opportunities for Spiritual Growth and Engagement:
Don’t Scramble, Prioritize!


I left the pepper plant in the garage too long. It is hanging down its head and crying. In desperation I dug an extra big hole, deposited an extra amount of enriched soil, watered it with a copious amount of fertilized water—too much, too late.
As I ponder on this little vignette of my gardening catastrophe, I am struck with how this describes so much of our life efforts. Only when we see the heart, the relationship, the value, the priority nearly dead do we shift into what I call “the scramble mode.” We run around, scrambling here and there, grasping for anything and everything as a last straw of hope.
This entire approach to God is neither healthy nor glorifying to God. Waiting too late has its own consequence—no more opportunities. Our daily lives are filled with opportunities to attend to the priorities. But if we shove them back on the shelf, the time will come when they will present themselves no more.
I love hot peppers. Only a hot-pepper-lover would understand this statement. But if I love hot peppers so much, why did I leave this one special plant in the garage too long?

+I got too busy
+I forgot
+I kept putting it off
+Every time I saw it I kept reassuring myself, I will do it tomorrow
+Pepper plants are hardy and resilient
+I still have time left

You know the excuses. We have all made them. The rationalizations muffle the sound of the screaming priorities. Busyness, self-preoccupation, procrastination, rationalization, false sense of security—we have relied on all of them at one time or another.

Some one in the hospital—why did I not go by and give them a word of comfort and prayer before they died? I intented to…

+I got too busy
+I forgot
+I kept putting it off
+Every time I remembered I kept reassuring myself, I will do it tomorrow
+People are hardy and resilient, they will get better
+I still have time left

Remember, don’t scramble, prioritize! You’ll never regret it. To God be the glory!
In Christian love, Curtis