Stories of hope in Central Texas and the Middle East

If you’re like me, you’re ready to think about some good news this morning.

My wife and I, like so many others, have been living in grief since the news broke last Friday of the floods in Central Texas and the devastating loss of life. As of this morning, at least 111 have died; according to Gov. Greg Abbott, another 161 remain missing in Kerr County, including five campers and a counselor from Camp Mystic.

But in the midst of unspeakable tragedy, stories of survival and hope are emerging as well.

A family of thirty-three and a woman and her two dogs are among the survivors of one of the deadliest flood disasters in Texas history. Rev. Jasiel Hernandez Garcia, who was in charge of receiving survivors from Camp Mystic at the reunification center, witnessed children “being offloaded from the bus, missing shoes, having dirt all over them, being hungry, seeing their parents from a distance and their weeping out of joy.”

In addition, many who are grieving their losses are using their platform of suffering to share their hope in Christ with the world. Tavia Hunt, wife of Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt, posted that their family lost a young cousin. She nonetheless wrote:

If your heart is broken, I assure you God is near, he is gentle with your wounds. And he is still worthy, even when your soul is struggling to believe it. Trust doesn’t mean you’re over the pain; it means you’re handing it to the only One who can hold it with love and restore what was lost. For we do not grieve as those without hope.

It was my privilege to be their family’s pastor for many years. Knowing them as I do, I am not surprised that they are using this tragedy to encourage others to trust in their Lord.

A new path for Palestinians?

Now let’s turn to other good news from a part of the world where it is often in short supply.

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had dinner at the White House Monday night and met again yesterday afternoon. Mr. Netanyahu met with House Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday and will meet with a bipartisan group of senators this afternoon. All of this to discuss the monumental changes in the Middle East that have occurred in recent weeks.

Among them is news that a group of leading Palestinian sheiks have signed a letter pledging peace and full recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Their plan is for their city of Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city located south of Jerusalem, to break out of the Palestinian Authority (PA), establish an emirate of its own, and join the Abraham Accords.

The sheiks note the terrible exploitation of their people by their leaders (PA President Mahmoud Abbas is personally worth $100 million) and are seeking a new way forward that would guarantee the security of Israel and the Palestinians.

This could perhaps pave the way for normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which could lead other Arab nations to join the alliance and bring peace to the region.

If Christians must account for evil

Whatever comes of this possibility, it at least points to a fact relevant to the tragedies of recent days: If Christians must account for evil, skeptics must account for good.

When people use innocent suffering to claim that God cannot be all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving, they must then explain the altruistic, sacrificial good (apart from God) to be found in so many places, even in the midst of suffering. Evolutionary theories cannot account for the hundreds of volunteers who are risking so much to search for survivors and victims of the floods, or the financial and prayerful support being marshalled across the country.

For every good in the world, we can ask why there is evil; for every evil in the world, we can ask why there is good.

So, here’s a better approach: rather than interpreting the character of God by the circumstances of our broken world, let’s interpret our circumstances through the prism of his character.

“Though the fig should not blossom”

Habakkuk said to God, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” (Habakkuk 1:13). And yet he closes his book:

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lᴏʀᴅ; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Gᴏᴅ, the Lord, is my strength (Habakkuk 3:17–19).

Paul pleaded three times with the Lord to remove his “thorn” in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7–8) before learning that God’s “power is made perfect in weakness” and trusting his pain to his Father’s providence (v. 9).

Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) before praying as he died, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).

They each chose “to know and to believe the love that God has for us” (1 John 4:16). “To know” in the Greek means to understand intellectually; “to believe” means to trust fully and personally. I can know that my surgeon is eminently qualified to operate on my back; it is only when I trust myself to his skill that I experience it for myself.

When faith “receives the impossible”

This is why Tavia Hunt is so right in encouraging us to give our pain to “the only One who can hold it with love and restore what was lost.”

Corrie ten Boom, who lost her parents to the Nazis and had to watch her sister starve to death in their Holocaust camp, nonetheless testified,

“Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.”

Will you take your next step into such faith today?

Quote for the day:

“Little faith will bring your soul to heaven; great faith will bring heaven to your soul.” —Charles Spurgeon

Our latest website resources:

• Why does God allow disasters like the Texas Hill Country floods?
• How do the arts and sciences reveal the genius of God?
• Why Michael Madsen’s death gave me pause: A reflection on simplification in life and preparation for eternity
• “Alligator Alcatraz” and the power of deterrence
• Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan explain the uniqueness of America