Weblogs: Katrina - Trouble for a Calvinist

a badchristian blog: "As a Calvinist, or neo-Calvinist as the case may be, I don't like natural disasters. They put a kink in the bow of my nicely wrapped 'sover[e]ign God' package. It's all well and good to be a believer in a sover[e]ign God when good stuff is happening all around. But, honestly, Katrina shakes my faith to its very roots. How can an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God let such a terrible thing happen to her people.

Now, I'm not saying that we Calvinists don't have some pat answers for this. We do. I could rattle them off for you (see, I've taken apologetics, too). Yet, somehow those pat answers don't seem to placate me like they once did. And, like lots of folks, I could lie to you and say that I totally understand how this all fits into God's plan. Some of these folks even believe themselves.

See, I'm not buying what they're selling. They're selling shares in understanding. I don't think I need understanding. What I need is a faith that 'does.' As I reread this, the concept of a faith that 'does' is particularly abstract. Stick with me here, I think what I mean will become more clear. Somehow, an immovable, unshakeable understanding has become synonomous with a strong faith. (And, to be honest, according to the logic of the Kingdom of Man this makes perfect sense.) However, the logic of the Kingdom of God--the same one that asks for faith like a mustard seed--defies this. [...]

It's not that we give up on the search for understanding. It's not that we stop trying to figure it all out. I think the light dawns when we realize that the 'answer' isn't really the answer to the question. The search, in and of itself, is the answer to the question.

Which brings me, in a round-a-bout way, back to faith. You see, perhaps faith isn't something to be 'had' in the traditional sense. Perhaps, it's something to be done. Perhaps, by the very quest for the answers, by the examination and acceptance of the shaking of the very roots of what we call faith, we'll realize that faith isn't finding the answers. Faith isn't understanding some abstract concept.

Faith, I think, in the upside down logic of the Kingdom of God, grows by participating in the process of uncertainty. "