Seeker

What items couldn't you live without? That's the challenge from the #cyblessings calendar today, presented in the context of preparing for and responding to natural disasters. Christian Aid works with partners in areas prone to natural disasters, not just to meet emergency needs but to engage in long-term planning for disaster risk reduction. The Humanitarian Practice Network has an interesting article about Christian Aid and Disaster Risk Reduction . It's dated 2007 but I think the points it makes are still relevant. Suppose you lost your possessions in a hurricane or tsunami?   What things would you miss most? I don't count people as 'things' - loss of people would be the greatest loss. The question today is about what things you couldn't live without. Christian Aid suggests giving 10p for every one of those items. Trying to make a list has confronted me with how many things I have that I might miss greatly but actually could live without. The qu...

Someone deeply distressed, wonders why God doesn't help in times of trouble. Does it mean God doesn't care?  God knows what's happening but stands aloof? "Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" (Psalm 10:1 NIV) Psalm 10 speaks about a powerful ruler who says to himself  "Nothing will shake me: I will always be happy and never have trouble" while he murders the innocent and oppresses the weak. According to the Psalmist this man has no respect for God and says to himself  "God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees." Reading this psalm, I found myself thinking about the current situation in places like Libya. The Psalm ends with an affirmation that God does see and cares about people's trouble and grief: "You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry". When I read this, my thoughts were of the catastroph...

Photo from onion.com It 's h appening under your nose (and mine). It's a "crisis of catclysmic proportions " that could be the "greatest environmental disaster" in the history of the United States, according to a brilliantly ironic news article published by onion.com. I enjoy irony, so it made me smile - at first. That's before the 'ouch' factor hit. No, not the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but the consequences of a legal delivery of a dangerous substance in a port in Louisana. I noticed this thanks to a link posted by my god-daughter on her Facebook wall. Thanks D! I don't live in the US, but similar shocking and  legal events are passing unnoticed through UK ports and land transport systems and other places world-wide. Enough from me - you've got to read this - Millions Of Barrels Of Oil Safely Reach Port In Major Environmental Catastrophe

Should I blog about Haiti and the earthquake? I've held back for 2 reasons. Firstly the event is so horrific I've been stunned into silence.  Secondly there is a temptation for Christian ministers to feel an obligation to say something deep and meaningful at times of tragedy. Sometimes silence is better. I look at the images, like this one by Carl Juste (Miami Herald) of Haitians scrambling for aid. I try to imagine the situation. I ask, 'why' and don't have a satisfactory answer, because every answer leads to another question. On the BBC website today, David Bain, from Glasgow University Philosophy Department examines answers that people of faith have given to the question, 'why does God allow natural disasters?' He ends by repeating the question. The article is worth reading, as are the comments. The end of the last comment I read (from Paul, Birmingham) makes a lot of sense, "The importance of what needs to be done now far outweighs the ...