I find it fascinating to watch Christians struggle with the issue of God and the tsunami. I don’t struggle with it. Tsunamis happen; people die; that’s life; life sucks. But God is good. At the End, God will bring every last tsunami victim back to life, and they will live forever.
Some Christians don’t find comfort in this because they suspect that most of the tsunami victims were pagans and will rise again only to be thrown into the burning lake. But again, God is good. More of those people are his than we Christians suspect, because he is much less judgmental and more forgiving than we are.
Speaking of which… I had two people gripe about donating to the Red Cross. “Why,” they wondered (though not necessarily in these words) “are you encouraging people to donate there, when they can donate to Christian charities which will share the gospel with the victims?”
Simple. The Red Cross has the resources to accept big donations and quickly act to help the needy. The Christian charities, sadly, just aren’t as efficient. If you want to save the most people, you have to go with the more effective organization.
Plus, if the Red Cross is successful at saving the most people, it keeps more people alive for us Christians to evangelize. Hopefully by then we’ll be able to answer their questions about where God was in the tsunami. (Quick answer: He wasn’t. See 1 Kings 19.11-12.)