Although I have written recently about the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in the West Indies, I write today about the series of earthquakes and tsunamis that have been battering the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia.  One wonders why such destruction visits people who are least prepared to deal with it.  Jared Diamond's thesis in his magisterial Guns, Germs, and Steel aside, I struggle constantly with wondering how one race of 

people, that is, whites of European descent, has managed to end up with the best land and most money, often to the detriment of everyone else on the planet.  Although I have my beliefs about God, history, and purpose, I'm not sure if I will ever fully put them together.  All I can do is weep over the pain, do what I can to ameliorate it, and pray.

     So do I invite you to do the same.  We will never unravel the fullness of divine purpose in this life.  We are finite beings.  But we can pray to the person from all meaning comes and without whom the world would have no point.
     Which would we prefer:  meaningless havoc in a meaningless universe or meaningless havoc in a meaningful universe?  Although the latter seems paradoxical and contradictory, it is not:  we cannot insist we can make any sense of anything unless we first agree that we live in a meaningful medium in which to do so.