Why Katrina?
September 19, 2005
It’s impossible in the wake of one the greatest
natural disaster to hit the United States to avoid the question:
Why did this happen? Hundreds of thousands of people driven from
homes which are now nothing more than piles of splintered
sticks. Billions of dollars in losses. A city under water where
hundreds if not thousands of people lost their lives. People
wonder, is God responsible for this?
When we see God’s creation lash out with such fury
it gets our attention. It surfaces deeper questions that we had
shoved into a closet in the corner of our mind, closed the door,
and securely locked. Such questions drive us back to the dawn of
creation. In the beginning, when God surveyed all he had made,
he smiled. The splendor of the heavens. The curvature of the
earth. The blue of the oceans. God saw it all and concluded, “it
was very good” (Genesis 1:31).
Into this “very good” setting God placed man in
the garden and told him to “work it and take care of it”
(Genesis 2:15). Man’s job was to take God’s wonderful creation
and unleash all of the potential bound up in it. Actually,
mankind has done a pretty good job unlocking the mysteries and
riches concealed in God’s handiwork. Haven’t we? All you’ve got
to do is consider the amazing breakthroughs in technology and
medicine to realize how far we’ve come. How much we’ve
uncovered.
For instance, in Louisiana and Mississippi we’ve
built refineries that take oil from tankers and turn that oil
into fuel. We’ve learned how to build levies and canal walls to
hold back the sea so that a city can exist below sea level.
But we also acted stupidly. When we built the
cities, canals, levees, and refineries we destroyed the barrier
islands and marshes of the Mississippi River Delta—islands and
marshes that used to provide hurricanes with a formidable land
barrier to cross before reaching New Orleans. The very levees
and canals that protected New Orleans and provide navigation
divert replenishing sediment. For years Louisiana has lost about
24 square miles of this land barrier annually.
Was the loss of so many lives and structures the
result of a hurricane or the poor management of natural
resources? Multiple studies have been done that point to
numerous positive effects hurricanes have on various ecological
systems. For instance, hurricanes prune old plant parts and
increase nutrient availability in lagoons. The floods triggered
by hurricanes bring sediment into needed marshes. Are hurricanes
God’s avenging hand against sinners? Or, are they God’s way of
nurturing the earth. Could it be that we need to learn how to
live with these massive storms rather than building houses and
cities that we know such storms will destroy.
Earlier in the year I spoke at a men’s event in
the Grand Bahamas. During my stay there a friend who lived on
the island told me that they average one hurricane hit every
three years. Yet, he said, “We seldom lose a building or a
life.” When I asked why, he said they build their houses out of
cinder blocks and concrete. “We build everything to withstand
the wind and rain.”
His words remind me of the story of the three
little pigs and the wolf. One of the pigs built his house out of
straw and one built his out of sticks. The wolf blew down both
houses and ate the pigs. The third pig built his house out of
bricks and the wolf huffed and puffed but he could not blow down
the third pig’s house.
Why did God allow Katrina? I’m not sure. But I am
sure that all of the destruction wasn’t caused by the hurricane.
It was caused by unwise leaders who built their cities out of
straw. God will let us construct our cities out of whatever
material we want. He’ll even let us build them below sea level.
But if we’re going to do all of that, we need to be sure we
steward God’s creation wisely. Otherwise, we’ll suffer the
consequences of our bad choices.
In the light of such suffering we need to pray for
those who are displaced and hurting. And we need to pray for our
leaders that they’ll carefully consider how to best use the
natural resources God has entrusted them with. Let’s pray the
rebuilt cities are built of brick not straw and sticks because
we know it’s just a matter of time before another hurricane will
huff and puff and try to blow them all down.
Next week, I’ll consider what Katrina says about
the nature of God.
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