Where was God in Haiti?

Where was God in Haiti?
By Kris Timpert

This quote in bold print "Where was God in Haiti?" took up an entire page of a newspaper I saw this morning. The article went on to discuss the suffering of the religious people in the world. All those people who have been waiting for a savior. “Where is the savior?” exclaimed the author.
Here you have these poor people in Haiti, destitute, abandoned, hungry, injured and crying for help. Imagine the prayers rising up to the heavens.
What do we expect to happen here on Earth when such a disaster happens? Is someone going to magically appear and make it all better? Maybe someone will come someday and make the Earth a planet with no thunder or lightening. Maybe there is a way to keep Earth quiet so everyone living on her surface can be happy and free from ever experiencing a rainy day or a forest fire.
This however, isn’t going to occur any time soon, just as being in a body will never set you free from needing to eat or use the bathroom. We are instead in the midst of an experience and are living it through the vehicles of our bodies while walking around a living planet within an expanding universe. There’s not much you can do about those realities. The sun will burn you and the rain will get you wet, whether you’re good or bad, ignorant or enlightened.
For thousands of years they have preached to the people that someone was coming to liberate them from their suffering. One of the most amazing pictures for me of the disaster in Haiti was the crumbled remains of a church and a statue of the crucified Christ, perfectly untouched standing outside. It was as if under the picture should have been written, “Religion lives on while man dies”.
If we all keep praying and waiting, surely God will come. He will send whoever is holy to save us, rebuild the housing, feed the hungry and heal the sick. We’ll just wait and watch as the heavens open to shower blessings on all the suffering.
“Oh but look!” Here comes a man with food and water. Here is someone else with a backhoe and another with medical supplies and clean blankets. What to do? We don’t want to leave our group while everyone is waiting together for a miracle. Over there is someone who can help. What to do? Everyone will think I am a traitor if I decide for myself but I’ve been waiting for help a long time.
Perhaps those people with the water and medical supplies are here on God’s behalf. Perhaps even I can become greater in myself by getting up and helping others instead of waiting for someone else to save me. Perhaps I AM more powerful in acting for myself.
Is it just possible that God works through us rather than outside of us?
It’s true that you can’t see electricity. It’s there but certainly not visible until you have a wire, an outlet or an appliance that come to life with a great buzz. It’s amazing – power! Perhaps God is the same thing, invisible. Perhaps God too needs a wire, an outlet or an appliance to plug itself into so it can come alive. Perhaps human beings are that very vessel God waits to run divine current through. What if that’s true?
What good is waiting for something else when you have so much to do today? What good is waiting when the current is already moving through you?
Maybe it’s time to tend to the broken wires and heal the outlets so they can begin receiving divine juice. Maybe we’ve all just been too busy searching for something that’s been with us all along. Just like the person searching everywhere for their glasses, all the while they are simply resting on top of their head.