Based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy Gale is swept away to another land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to find her way home again, finally to be told that all she needs to do to get back home is click her heels three times while repeating “There’s no place like home.” Dorothy awakens back in Kansas after being knocked out, with her family at her bedside, learning the other land may have been a dream, but it taught her to value her home and her family.
Friends and relatives of at least 20 children in Oklahoma woke up this morning wishing what they experienced in a real life tornado yesterday had been just a dream from which they awoke this morning. Sadly that is not the case, and no amount of magic can bring them and the others who lost their lives in this tragedy back.
It is times like these that test our faith in a loving, compassionate God, and if it was asked once, it will be asked a million times, “Why would God allow such a thing to happen?” Indeed, we have come to label tragedies such as this one as “acts of God” in legal terms. So God just decided to wipe out all these people and all these homes and cause all this damage and misery? Didn’t He have anything better to do yesterday?
We can dwell on that question, but not or very long, because it’s not a question we can answer.
The question for me to answer today is not “Why them?” for us who are far away from this tragedy, or even “Why me?” for those who are close. The real question for the rest of us is “Why not me?” Why am I alive today? Why was my life spared to live another minute, much less another day? You can ask this question if you are 5,000 miles away from Oklahoma. It’s a relevant question to every day. Why did God take someone else and not me? Certainly any number of tragedies could have befallen me by now, and believe me, given what I know of my sinful self, I would have deserved any one of them. But God spared me this. He spared my life today. God wants me to live today. Why? He must have something He wants me to do on this planet. Well then, I’d better get busy doing it.
They say it’s one of the psychological hurdles anyone who comes home from a war alive has to face. Why not me? Why didn’t I die there with my friends? I don’t deserve to live if they can’t. The way to healing is to find the positive part of the question — the part you can do something about.
It is tragedies like the one in Oklahoma yesterday that make us look hard into these questions, but there is a sense in which this should be a knowledge we live with every day of the rest of our lives. God could have taken me by now, but He didn’t. Why didn’t He? What does He want from me that I haven’t done yet? The outcome of this question should be to live with a deeper purpose and a greater intensity.
In Baum’s novel, Dorothy learned to value her home and her family when she regained consciousness; we need to learn to value the same things, and our very lives as well. As more and more news comes out of Oklahoma today, ask yourself: “Why am I alive?” because I believe, of all the questions that are swirling around in everyone’s minds right now, that’s one question — and perhaps the only one — you can actually answer. You answer it with your life.
John Fischer The Catch 
i’ll add an Amen to today’s Catch and add my thoughts & many heart felt prayers go out to everyone affected by yesterday tragedy…
PS let me plz aslo add, wat it’s done for me is make me shead a few more tears in regard to my thankfulness of my God & Savoir letting me live and build my Biz, so hopefully some day soon I can be a blessing to many others and not jus pray; although, i do understand there is much power in prayer, i just would also luv to give money to help those out – so thx Pastor John 4 today’s Catch and reminding me of my ‘Purpose in Life’ – to live to give God Glory and to help out others as i help myself… 🙂
I couldn’t help putting myself in the shoes of the parents and friends who lost all those children, and family, and homes, etc., yesterday. Your financial request attached to this catch was sadly lacking in sensitivity, and the use of “tornado humor”/parody was poorly timed…. you hurt yourself today John…. stepped on your own toes. I’ll bet I’m not the only one who thought your request for money wasn’t funny, clever, or cute. …,r
I’ll agree to disagree w/ Ralph G…
Could this verse apply to the above discussion: “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.” 1 Corinthians 1:10 – i’ll leave that answer to them that think/believe in God’s Holy Word…
So some adult, brotherly. critical analysis is out of line?! are we not accountable to one another any more? Can we not accept some criticism from one another to help in keeping objective with our words and actions? I felt “tornado humor” was not appropriate today in light of yesterday’s tragedy….. and I’m actually a little embarrassed by the timing. …,r …and by the way… I too believe in God’s Holy Word.
Excuse me! Becauze I for one would LOVE to know where and when i wrote: “… is out of line?!” I didn’t not say that or meant to imply it, I wrote above that: “I’ll agree to disagree w/ Ralph G…”
Ralph, as a sort of staff member of the Catch, I completely understand your response! There are a few more cooks in the kitchen lately, and I can’t believe that one of us didn’t see this problem. You see, the “3 Clicks” campaign to invite more of the readership to become monthly sustaining members of this ministry has been in the works for a little while and is just now making its appearance on the site. In another room, John is just writing his blog in his office, and wanted of course to speak to the Oklahoma tragedy. We are not very coordinated yet, and the result is the conceptual train wreck that you see. Please at least note that the light and fun “3 Clicks” material makes no reference to the terrible events – because they had not occurred yet when we were taping and scheduling them to be posted. I didn’t even notice this until I checked the blog this morning. I’ll call a meeting to discuss postponing the campaign, at least until it isn’t cheek by jowl with a post about Oklahoma. (Will anyone believe that we did all this work with fun Oz characters BEFORE the tornado?) Thank for your feedback – Dan
thx Dan… appreciate you and the insight you provided… 🙂
I don’t know you Dan, but if what you are explaining is true then I apologize for my comments on the bad timing/”tornado humor”/fund raising. …,r
Hey Ralph, wanted to “say” i’m impresssed w/ your appology…
Mark, Hebrews 13:1 …,r
Brother Ralph: that’s a great & short and very meaningful verse .. 🙂