Rwanda: where is God when bad things happen?

Why was I born in a safe, sanitised and stable Western country? What do I do when I see evil manifest itself in all its horrific guises? These were some of the questions I asked as I stared at the limed bodies of thousands of Tutsi who had been killed where they had taken refuge in a school in Rwanda.

As a recently qualified barrister, I went to Africa with clinical questions about the operation of justice in a post-genocide society and found that no amount of intellectual posturing could help me to rationalise the deaths of 800,000 Tutsi and Hutus who were killed in the space of 100 days in 1994. I came back with many questions but also with the conviction that God cares passionately about injustice and calls Christians to respond with compassion and practical action.

Nameless bodies

Traces of individuality could still be seen on many bodies: shreds of a blue dress, an arm twisted-up in self-defence, the foetal curl of the terrified. As each nameless, unidentified body rapidly becomes a historical statistic and the attention of the world's fickle media moves on to the next topical trouble spot of the moment, what is God's view? I am sure that if I was wounded and enraged by such a sight then God was more so. God does not forget the suffering of victims or the killing of children. 'God is a righteous God who expresses his wrath every day' (Psalm 7.11), and it is key to the core of his very nature that he is a just God who never grows weary, numb or indifferent to the suffering of the world.

In the midst of great human despair and grief I met Christians working for reconciliation whose own mothers, brothers and wives had been brutally massacred. Those who, on a daily basis, live out the command to care for widows and orphans not only materially but also emotionally and spiritually.

Guilt of being alive

A young lawyer, not much older than myself had returned from studying in Kenya to find that she and her sister were the only surviving members of a large family. She spoke of the guilt of being alive when all her relatives had perished and the fear mixed with anger that comes from being alone. I would return to England to a career where my visits to mostly humane prison cells would be brief, professional and routine. She chose to relive her own grief and open her barely healed wounds by sharing on a daily basis something of her own pain in an attempt to encourage victims and witnesses of rape and torture to testify against their oppressors.

A man whose entire family lay unidentified at the genocide site that I had visited told how he ran seminars so that both ethnic groups could share their thoughts and feelings in an attempt to break the vicious circle of bitterness and vengeance. Such brave and determined individuals were a witness to God's presence in the midst of pain and brutality.

It was through men and women who themselves had suffered greatly that God was releasing the oppressed, securing justice for the poor and was upholding the cause of the needy. The God who was not immune to suffering on the cross and had entered a world of tears, pain and death is calling us to share his longing for justice and healing. 'The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one and he was appalled that there was no one to intervene' (Isaiah 59.15-16). This verse convinces me that God looks to each one of us to intervene when we see injustice and manifest His character of compassion and love. I may not have all the answers.

God is looking for someone

I may or may not have suffered myself. I may or may not feel up to the task. I may not always feel like intervening or feel capable of doing so. But God is looking for someone to intervene. For some of us this may be through informed prayer and a commitment to discover what is going on in God's world and consistently lift it before its maker. Some may be able to give financially. Others may be called to use their gifts in the practical service of others. Action in the face of injustice is not optional and we are all called to be witnesses of hope in a hurting world. All of us hear God asking 'whom will I send?' to listen to the hurting, to represent the unrepresented and to pray for the victims who may not be in the current media spotlight. The world could only benefit if we committed our time, money, emotions and intellect to saying 'Here I am, send me.'

Kate Gore

© Evangelicals Now - January 2001
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