A God Who Sees!

Have you given any thought to what it would be like to be trapped inside of a collapsed building? It is most likely pitch black, totally void of light and a very confined space. There is no food or water. There is nothing to distract you from your thoughts, discomfort or pain! There is no cell phone, iPod, TV, radio, newspaper, book, playstation, or conversation. It may be totally silent. Your breath seems loud and your heartbeat is piercing. Or maybe you can hear shuffling, knocking, digging, things crawling around you, scratching and even voices. You cry out over and over again.... "I am alive, I AM ALIVE!!" The concrete floors above you block your screams.

You have only your thoughts. What goes through your head? How do you keep your sanity? What about Fear, Loneliness, Isolation? If you know God, do you cry out to Him for help? As you lie there day after day do you wonder if God sees you? If you don't know Him, what do you do? Do you look to yourself or others for rescue or do you search for something bigger? Does your life flash before you like a moving picture reflecting on all the good and bad you have done? Do you think about your family, your friends or are you only focused on your own survival?

A patient in the teams’ mobile clinic said this week "I don't believe in hell because Haiti is already our hell." Where is God when people are suffering? Where is He?

I can't fully imagine this kind of suffering? I can't imagine what it would really be like to be trapped for days hoping that this would not be the end to my life. I can't imagine the extent of suffering and devastation this team is witnessing every day with their own eyes. I can't fully imagine what emotions are evoked as they look into the eyes of the Haitian people. But this is what I KNOW.

I know a different kind of suffering and in the midst of my darkest days I find that I am NOT alone. It is there where religion truly fades away and is replaced with a relationship with God, a benevolent FATHER that IS close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18). I know a God who sees and is well acquainted with suffering and in the midst does not turn His back on people but instead makes a way to dwell with them and be intimate with them and share in their suffering.