For about 20 years, Ray Keating wrote a weekly column - a short time with the New York City Tribune, more than 11 years with Newsday, another seven years with Long Island Business News, plus another year-and-a-half with RealClearMarkets.com. As an economist, Keating also pens an assortment of analyses each week. With the Keating Files, he decided to expand his efforts with regular commentary touching on a broad range of issues, written by himself and an assortment of talented contributors and columnists. So, here goes...

Friday, September 11, 2020

Reflecting on 9/11: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

by David Keating
The Keating Files – September 11, 2020

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me! - Job 19:25-27

Each year on September 11th we pause to remember those who lost their lives at the World Trade Center, as well as at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, in 2001. Upon seeing a disaster of that scale, many people had their faith shaken. People poured into the pews of churches the following week, many with the same thought: How could God let something like this happen? Everyone seemed to be wrestling with the most difficult question in all of theology: Why do bad things happen to good people?


Job wrestled with similar questions. He was the recipient of disaster after disaster. He had his family taken from him. He had his livelihood stripped away and he lost his home. Surely, if anyone had a right to curse God, it would be Job. 

Yet, Job didn’t curse God. Job knew that everything in this life is passing away. We often are plagued by the evil deeds of other men and have those things which we love in this life stripped from us. But, Job’s hope wasn’t in any of these things. Job’s hope wasn’t in his home, the people around him, or in his health. Instead, Job’s sure and certain hope was in his redeemer. 

Job knew that, if his redeemer lives, then he too will inherit eternal life and will see God face-to-face. No kind of disaster or calamity could take that away from Job. No disaster, whether man-made or natural, can take that away from the Church today, either. Because Christ Jesus is risen from the dead, we, too, will inherit the eternal life that is found in the resurrection. Even when disaster strikes and it feels like the world around is collapsing, the cross stands forever.

__________

The Reverend David Keating is pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Curtis, Nebraska.

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1 comment:

  1. SueSeptember 11, 2020 at 1:01 PM

    That passage from Job is one of my favorites. This is a good reminder for us with all we are facing this year with the pandemic, political turmoil, and the fires here in Oregon (and the entire West coast).

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