As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
On Wednesday after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, it was reported that televangelist Pat Robertson “linked the earthquake in Haiti to a ‘pact with the devil’ purportedly entered into by the Haitian people in the late 18th century in a bid to defeat French colonizers” (LA Times). In the past, Robertson has made other statements like this one, linking the attacks on America on September 11, 2001 and abortion. The connection in that case was that America deserved the attacks because of the astronomically high abortion rates in our country citing statistics that say that approximately one-third of the the present children population in America was murdered via abortion.
I do not intend to argue statistics. I do not mean in any way to speak ill of Pat Robertson. I do not desire to voice how I feel personally about abortion. Take only one thing away from this: it does not do well to try to understand why tragedies happen based on our sins. It does not do well to try and place blame when something terrible happens. Understand simply this: “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in our lives.” When tragic things happen, we desire to understand them and figure out what went wrong and ask why we deserved something so terrible, and some people attempt to answer those questions. I believe that we ought to take the attitude that Christ had, neither our sins nor the sins of our fathers are to blame, rather these tragedies happen so that God can be glorified and be revealed in our lives. When you wonder why God has placed you in a trial, turn to John 9 and meditate on His words.
*To read the story about Pat Robertson’s comment on the devastation in Haiti, click on the link below:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/01/us-televangelist-pat-robertson-links-haiti-earthquake-to-pact-with-devil.html


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