Why God seems to be MIA.

• Author: Pace, Jim
• Position: Religion - Suffering and religion

ON SATURDAY, Feb. 13, 2010, the gymnasium roof of Blacksburg High School fell in. It was a complete collapse. The first call from neighbors came to the police department at 1:37 p.m. Just hours before, the girls' basketball team had been practicing. The boys' basketball team had played there the night before. So, no one was in the gym at the time of the collapse. Had it occurred during a weekday, or almost any other Saturday, the outcome could have been catastrophic. All over town, people were grateful that the collapse occurred that particular Saturday, at that particular time. I have thanked God more than a few times myself.

Yet, in situations like this, a few questions often lurk behind the gratitude. "God, if you are there, and are able, why not always have buildings fall a couple of hours after practices?" We know that often is not how it is. Many times, disaster is not averted. The earthquakes in Haiti and Chile; tsunamis; the horror of terrorism; leaders who have the opportunity to bring peace and assistance to their regions instead bring money into their personal accounts. It painfully is clear that, more often than not, things do not work out like they did with the Blacksburg High School gym. People are hurt; the innocent suffer; the powerless are victimized at the hands of the powerful. A quick scan of the headlines can be one of the most depressing things we do during our day.

Some would say that Blacksburg is due for some good news. Virginia Tech, which is located in that town, was the site of the most deadly university shooting in our nation's history. On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty and wounded many others before taking his own life.

I graduated from Virginia Tech and am one of the pastors of New Life Christian Fellowship, a church that hundreds of Virginia Tech students and local residents attend. The morning of April 16, I was a block away from campus. I could hear the sirens from the police cars as they raced by. I never will forget the pain that was created by one event. I remember walking around campus or the town that surrounds it and seeing people staring blankly ahead or breaking down into tears; nor will I forget the terrible math that took place when we knew whom we had not heard from that day.

Three of the victims had attended our church. The events of those next few hours and months are forever fused into who I am. As the father of one of the Columbine students told our church a week after the shootings, "After something like that, you don't go back to normal--just doesn't happen. After that, you have a new normal."

Part of my new normal is that once I expressed gratitude about what happened with the Blacksburg High School gym, my thoughts went to those who are not grateful for a near miss, but are suffering from a direct hit. Since the shootings, I have talked with an enormous number of people suffering from those hits. They might be like me, a follower of Jesus. They might...