One day, an attack on a mosque in New Zealand.  And now, almost the next day, the awful aftermath of a cyclone that swept through some of the most impoverished nations on the planet.  Why?
     A number of years ago, I taught at a conference in northern Malawi.  Everywhere I went, I encountered immense poverty.  Mud brick houses, dirt roads, and grass huts.  Stoves were few, cooking over fires commonplace.  Bathrooms?  A screen and a hole in the ground.  Water?  A community pump installed by an NGO a few years before.
     Sitting in our affluence, we wonder why these things happen, why the worse natural malfunctions come upon those least prepared to deal with them.
     I wonder, too.  So I pray.  I pray and believe in God and the essential meaningfulness of the existence he has given us.  That he is there.
     Does this sound facile?  Sure.  But if we insist on the fact of purpose, we cannot look at life in any other way.
     Pray for the people of Southern Africa.