Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: February 2010

If you keep up with the news, you'll know it's been one of those times when you just want to fold up your newspaper and toss it away, or turn the television off.

Some stories make you feel that way. The destruction in Haiti might be one; the savagery of the two brothers in Edlington certainly will. Just mentioning these on this page might be enough to make you stop reading right now – but don't.

You see, Christians have a unique perspective on all these events. We're permitted as human beings to feel all the revulsion that the events of the last fortnight have provoked. We're also allowed to feel as though we don't know where to start to fix these problems – a question many aid workers must have asked as they arrived in Haiti.

As bewildering as many of these things are, there is a starting point. For Christians, it's scripture, and that's what provides us with that unique perspective. It's our pep talk to help us persevere, our handhold on the cliff of despair where others have none, and our motivation to begin rebuilding in a landscape – physical or otherwise – that seems outwardly to be beyond repair.

The first thing to remember is that we’re not alone in feeling like this: "Stand firm in your faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings," says Peter [1 Peter 5:9]. As for where to start – well, can there be any better example in scripture than of Nehemiah returning to a desolate Jerusalem? After inspecting its ruined walls, and after deciding to rebuild, he rebuffs scepticism and incredulity with this: "The God of Heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding" [Nehemiah 2:20].

Pic: Matthew McDermott

Whether as Christians, parents, or just human beings, you'll have been glad you didn’t turn off the news if you witnessed seven-year-old Kiki Joachin being pulled from the rubble of his home, arms aloft in delight, or saw Wismond Exantus' remarkable rescue after 11 days beneath a toppled fruit shop. "It was God who was tucking me away in his arms. It gave me strength," he said later. These are witnesses to God's presence in the unimaginable, just as Christians are called to be the first to imagine a way out of the indescribable.