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No one’s laughing at God
We discovered Regina Spektor in December during one of Amazon’s $5 CD deals. I was listening to her album Far one night as background music when the song “Laughing With” came on. Something about the song captured me instantly. I had to stop working and give it my full attention. I found the video on YouTube and watched it over and over. It made me cry.
Speaking of crying, I started hearing about the devastation in Haiti sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning (I had a daughter with a stomach virus and we were up all night long as she continued to wake and heave—Haiti could wait, I thought). In my lack-of-sleep state Wednesday morning, we slugged our way through the school day with the youngest recovering on the couch, but I kept hearing more about Haiti.
Finally, I couldn’t put it off any longer—I searched online to find out what had happened. My 11-year-old was standing near me when she heard me say, “Oh, my God,” in an audible, non-blasphemous, serious question to the Lord. Tears stung my eyes as I began reading. Concern in her voice, she wondered what I was finding out. I started reading out loud. She had tears in her eyes, too.
We feel so helpless. What can we do? We can pray. We can give. We can distance ourselves from Pat Robertson (we were never that close anyway). And we can listen to Regina—after all, sometimes it takes a skeptic to convey truth in a more honest way than on airways “safe for the whole family”:
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving
or freezing or so very poor
One thing’s for sure: No one’s laughing at God in Haiti right now.
And despite what some wrongly presume, God’s not laughing either.
back to top39 Comments to “No one’s laughing at God”
Good column. One quibble: Do you know that Regina Spektor is a “skeptic,” as you describe her? I don’t know anything about her, but I read the lyrics to the song and they don’t sound to me like anything a skeptic would write.
So I’m just wondering, has she said something elsewhere that makes you think she is, or is it just an assumption?
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Some skeptics should just walk away.
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Thanks for posting the video Megan. I would have never found this if not for your post and I think it’s something that I can use to help start some great discussions with the middle and high schoolers I work with weekly. God bless!
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I am curious as to how you did explain this to your daughter.
Pat Robertson was citing an old story of Haiti that has been told for years. He also compared Haiti to the DR. How do we explain the differences of economic growth in these two countries?
I have no idea why there was an earthquake in Haiti, but is it biblical to say God is not sovereign? If he is sovereign and allowed it, is he not all-loving?
I have long ago learned not to defend God, since I know he will defend himself in the end and that our ways are not his ways. I also have learned the truth of Psalm 62, 11 & 12: God is both strong and loving.
I also know there are spritual battles that go on that we may know nothing about. To teach our children that we can do what we want on a physical level and not reap any consequences seems foolish to me. Countries also do things that reap consequences and sometimes God does try to get their attention. That is biblical. Whether that is the case here is unknown to us now.
I trust God is with his people in Haiti. We will see many miracles, no doubt and much charity and heroism. Someday we may know the ‘why’.
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Perhaps skeptic isn’t the best word.
This interview with her is pretty interesting: http://www.clashmusic.com/news/regina-spektor-talks-religion
In it she says, “I’m always fascinated with faith, religion, and spirituality, and what those things are to each other, or how they come together or don’t come together.”
“When I was done with this record I was like, “Whoa, I have a lot of stuff here that’s just about, like, religion.” Which is amazing. It wasn’t planned, but it’s one of those concepts that my mind is just fascinated with, and I’m always mulling over. Sometimes I’m really positive about religion, but, you know, sometimes I’m really sarcastic about it, too. Hey, that’s God, that’s life!”
She’s Jewish, but perhaps more cultural and agnostic, it would seem.
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Good song, but as for the video; Somebody got a new plaything and tried out all the buttons.
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KI – We haven’t really had the “why” questions/conversation yet. I know it’s coming, so I’m talking to my husband a lot and praying a lot and trying to get ready for it.
WORLD linked to this Piper article yesterday that is very helpful: http://online.worldmag.com/2010/01/13/whence-and-why/
This link is longer and deals with surrounding why God allows evil (natural and moral) in the world:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByDate/1998/1476_Is_God_Less_Glorious_Because_He_Ordained_that_Evil_Be/
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I’m not laughing today. It has been a sobering week.
It came as quite a shock last night, to learn a dear friend is on the verge of death. I will never have any more conversations with this gentle man, who is the father of several wonderful girls who attend our church. He also leaves behind his wife and 2 sons.
And as many of you know, my dear mother-in-law is not far behind. The choices that have to be made are not easy ones. The reality of the financial aspect of Nursing Homes, and the lower level of care that you recieve has been discouraging.
On the one hand I’ll miss them both very much. On the other hand, I’m glad both of them will not have to continue to suffer, and will go to meet their Lord.
And that’s in a country that has enough infrastructure to cope with such things. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live in one of the poorest countries in the world.
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I guess my point is that Christians too often seem to want to reduce life to the slogan “—- Happens.” They want to reduce everything to weather happens, illness happens, accidents happen, as if God stands outside wringing his hands, helpless. It seems we are embarrassed for God.
We can also go to the other extreme and be Job’s comforters; sure we know the reason for everything that happens. Surely, it must be your sin that is causing God to allow trouble in your life.
Neither explanation is very stabilizing or comforting in the long run. Prayer is the best place to start for all of us.
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MIM, my prayers for you for comfort and wisdom.
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If my 10-year-old son asks, I will explain that an earthquake is the result of movement of plates of rock beneath the Earth’s crust. God could stop it, just as He could stop a car that skids on black ice from flipping over. But our experience (and I think this is consistent with Scripture) tells us that most of the time God allows the laws of physics that He created to govern the universe.
If my son still has questions – well, I guess it depends on what the questions are.
If God did intervene in the case of Haiti, then we would find ourselves asking all the same questions, about why didn’t He intervene in other cases of death and destruction. We tend to ask these questions when huge numbers of lives are lost, but the moral issues are basically the same whether it’s an earthquake killing tens of thousands or one of the many minor disasters that happen every day and affect relatively few people.
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Pauline, I do agree with you (11) as far as it goes. One of the most important things with children is really answering to their level.
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Make it Man 01.14.10 AT 11:44 AM
I’m not laughing today. It has been a sobering week.
It came as quite a shock last night, to learn a dear friend is on the verge of death. I will never have any more conversations with this gentle man, who is the father of several wonderful girls who attend our church. He also leaves behind his wife and 2 sons.
–
my pray goes out to you, I faced the same issue last year when one of my best friend, went home to be with the Lord.
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But KI: Things do ‘just happen’. And I do not say that lightly or in jest.
Man and nature are both corrupted and subject to a dieing process because of Adam.
Even as we look to the revelation Of Christ for our redemption;
Creation looks with anticipation to the revealing of the sons of God. See Romans 8:18-22.
We must be about our Father’s business.
Amen!
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Roger – ditto. If it weren’t for the Fall, these things would not be happening. We cannot legitimately accuse God of injustice.
After 9/11, my pastor said something in a sermon that I found helpful: he said, lots of people are asking why God allowed it to happen, but they are asking the wrong question. They should be asking, “Why didn’t God allow it to happen to me?”
In the same vein, Sproul relates his experience as a seminary professor, that many students say, “What I don’t get is why God doesn’t just save everybody.” He once had a student say to him, “What I don’t get is why God saved me.”
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But, Roger. Do you think God has no control over our world? Yes, sin has brought evil into our world and redemption has not yet taken place for the whole world. We do not have access to all the whys of everything, either. Yet, we cannot over-look the spiritual dimension, which is what we seem to want to do when we are so embarrassed by the Pat Robertsons of the world. Is it helpful to others to offer only a physical explanation always?
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I found my pastor’s remarks helpful because it helped me focus on God’s love, mercy and kindness. It helped foster an attitude of praise and worship, as opposed to my fleshly temptation toward anger in the aftermath of 9/11.
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The question that must be asked could this be the start of Matthew 24:7?
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The reason man will see Matthew 24:7 happen an try to explain it away.
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Ki @ 18: I believe that God does have control over our world.
However, let us not forget that He created man a free will being and according to Genesis, gave him the authority to subdue it and have dominion over it.
Note that He ‘gave’, suggesting that it was not a loan.
In Christ, many have been renewed to the authority that Adam first had, and it is they, the sons of God, whom all of creation is awaiting, that through their revealing, creation also will be restored.
Let us be about our Father’s business.
Blessings.
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Roger, my concern is that Christians are quick to jump on the bandwagon of explaining things only through a natural lens. To do so not only shortchanges them, but those around them who are listening.
There is a time to speak and a time to remain silent in all of our personal relationships. It gets even stickier when talking about national and international relationships. All of that makes for a lot of thought and prayer for Christians.
Meghan was dismissing Pat Robertson who mentioned a couple of things about Haitian history and the DR. She also mentioned she wanted to be able to explain things to her child. It seems to me that in the explanation (which comes in stages for our children) one cannot dismiss the responsiblility our own behavior and beliefs have on things that happen to us. Also, one cannot dismiss the possible spiritual components of things that happen. I believe that is true on both an individual level and a national level. Yet, Christians are quick to jump on anyone who even mentions a spiritual aspect to anything.
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Question was there any damage to the DR side on the island? An what is the different between the two parts?
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Ki
Both posts, 4 and 21 are excellent FOOD for thought.
Dismissing everything that happens in this world makes no sense. We read the Word of GOD, and see the hand of GOD in many devastating circumstances, even to the point of HIS telling WHY it happened. Prophecy has come to pass, even in our life time…. but yet when devastation hits we shy away from even mentioning or attributing it to anything that has the hand of GOD upon it.
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KI – but it is also possible to acknowledge that events in the unseen world can have an effect on, or even be the cause of, events in the physical world, without specifically blaming the people who are suffering from those physical-world events. There must have been some faithful Israelites at the time Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, and one can think of Job’s suffering as being tied to spiritual transactions that did not involve any sin on Job’s part. One encouraging thing about the story of Job is that he was never informed of those spiritual transactions. This means we can have hope that there is some meaning of cosmic significance in suffering even when we don’t know – and will never know during our lifetime – exactly what that meaning is.
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Buzzy, I agree with you.
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Ki: I think you miss the point of my posts.
I can do nothing about that, except to say that God gave Adam and by extension all mankind, authority and dominion (for good or evil) over all of creation. All of creation fell into caos when Adam fell. Creation is now anxiously awaiting the revealing (”manifestation” according to the KJV version)of the sons of God.
Man, in his right relationship with the God of all creation as His sons is the key that will set creation free.
We must be about our Father’s business.
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Matthew 24:7 – 8 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And thee will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
When this starts to happen how will sinful men explain these happen
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Pastor Roy – 27
They can’t explain it – even we as Believers are standing with a watchful eye on world events, wondering if what we are observing (events of the last few years and this current quake) is what’s spoken of in the Word of God.
I believe it’s getting close, very few biblical students and schoar’s are turning a blind eye to the events of today. I think many are being very careful of what they say.
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Victoria 01.14.10 AT 3:02 PM
Pastor Roy – 27
They can’t explain it – even we as Believers are standing with a watchful eye on world events, wondering if what we are observing (events of the last few years and this current quake) is what’s spoken of in the Word of God.
I believe it’s getting close, very few biblical students and schoar’s are turning a blind eye to the events of today. I think many are being very careful of what they say.
–
I do know if Pat Robertson was right or wrong but the responds from the Nation will be the responds when matthew 24:7 happens
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For those interested;
The differences between DR and Haiti alluded to by Robertson stem from two radically different histories. From the sky one can clearly see the border between the two nations, you just need to follow the tree line. On the DR side there are trees and on the Haiti side there are none.
Haiti was “managed” by the French and during the plantation era, Haiti made a minority of French people extremely rich. Besides being the wealthiest colony in the Caribbean, it was well know for its extreme cruelty and high death rate of slaves, worse than other islands. Although there were many slave revolts, the successful revolt was only possible because the mulatto freeman joined in. Despite successive attacks and invasions, the slaves succeeded. The French, who exploited the colony far more efficiently than the Spanish in DR, took everything that could be moved with them and burned/destroyed the rest during their evacuation leaving the slaves with the ruins. One condition of peace and freedom was a large reparation payment made to France from Haiti for lost wealth ie slaves and plantations which were destroyed. This reparation took some 50 years to pay. To further compound the problems for the new nation, a power struggle broke out between the minority mulattoes and the black slaves. Without a stable economy, heavily in debt and faced with hostile neighbours and internal dissension, the new nation had an extremely difficult time. However, prior to WWII, the standard of living was not much lower than other islands. The rule of Papa Doc and Baby Doc worsen the already present poverty. What natural resources which still remained was sold off to international companies with the profit pocketed not by the state but the ruling family hence the environmental destruction.
Meanwhile in DR, the Spanish administered their colony much like other Spanish colonies. Natives were killed and slaves imported but within a few generations there was a new elite composed of Dominicans of various colors and hues. And by the time of independence, administrative skills were acquired and a stable economy was established.
Pat may see the hand of the devil, I see history.
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If it hasn’t already been used (and I’m pretty sure it hasn’t), I expect we’ll hear that song at the close of some future episode of House.
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HRW, so we can all blame the French.
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A qualified yes — blame the French for the hideous start.
But the US occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. During this time, the US gov’t controlled Haiti’s fiances and funneled 40% of the state income to pay US and French holders of Haiti debt. Although the troops left in 1934, the US continued to control the external fiances until 1947. During the period of American occupation, the Haitian economy was oriented towards exporting raw materials. And to top the Europeans it terms of colonial insensitivity, the US instituted “Jim Crow” like policies in Haiti.
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The thing that seems strange to me is that everyone criticizes Christians for even suggesting any kind of causal relationship between people’s actions and their misfortunes, while at the same time, the notion of karma has gained so much traction in our culture. But karmic religions say that everything that happens to every individual is a direct consequence of what that individual has done in this life or a past life. And I don’t hear anyone talking about how cruel a belief that is. Strange.
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Ree 01.14.10 AT 6:06 PM
The thing that seems strange to me is that everyone criticizes Christians for even suggesting any kind of causal relationship between people’s actions and their misfortunes, while at the same time, the notion of karma has gained so much traction in our culture. But karmic religions say that everything that happens to every individual is a direct consequence of what that individual has done in this life or a past life. And I don’t hear anyone talking about how cruel a belief that is. Strange.
–
Karma does not have Jesus. Christian do.
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I returned and saw under the sun that—
The race is not to the swift,
Nor the battle to the strong,
Nor bread to the wise,
Nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
But time and chance happen to them all.
12 For man also does not know his time:
Like fish taken in a cruel net,
Like birds caught in a snare,
So the sons of men are snared in an evil time,
When it falls suddenly upon them.
—Solomon—
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#34 Ree – excellent point. Also, even aside from karma, I noticed after 9/11 that there was a lot of blame-the-victim going on by the Left, asserting that America brought this on ourselves through “imperialist” foreign policy.
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The thing that seems strange to me is that everyone criticizes Christians for even suggesting any kind of causal relationship between people’s actions and their misfortunes, while at the same time, the notion of karma has gained so much traction in our culture. But karmic religions say that everything that happens to every individual is a direct consequence of what that individual has done in this life or a past life. And I don’t hear anyone talking about how cruel a belief that is. Strange.
There is no evidence for God intervening in human affairs, as there is no evidence for the existence of God. Neither the idea of Heaven or Hell nor the idea of karma has much credibility or makes much sense.
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Random Name, how many times do you have to repeat your wish (post 38) for it to come true? Did your fairy godmother say?
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