Thought for the Week

By Rev Trish Laird, Minister, Church of Nazarene

Another major tragedy strikes London; leaving much of the country numb with disbelief and insoluble grief. Some of the grim facts from Grenfell Towers, which we now know, are difficult to get a handle on and why these things happen. We can look to the current societal happenings and play the blame game, but that still doesn’t answer the larger underlying question of why God allowed the tragedy to happen in the first place.

Sadly, we don’t have an answer since we don’t know God’s mind. We’re told in 1 Corinthians 13:12 that all we know is “partial and incomplete,” with the promise that, as believers, we will one day know everything completely.

Last week I was reminded of a story that came from a chaplain in the army. A young private was afraid to go into battle; he cried and he cursed, he was sorely afraid and not a prayer was helping until the chaplain said, “I can’t promise you won’t be killed; but I will go with you.” And the chaplain unarmed, defenceless and vulnerable went into the terrifying battlefield with the soldier.

We cannot retreat from the real world that surrounds us with all its geopolitical conflicts, hunger and disease, pain and suffering. As Christ followers we are called to imitate Christ and put ourselves into the midst of the world’s needs, just as the chaplain went into the battlefield. We are called by God to struggle with the world that’s around us, and are called to be active participants in trying to make the world a better place for all to live in. For this is what Christ did for us; he came to live alongside us - sharing our pain.