Who'll Stop the Rain?

Large-scale disasters highlight man's inability to control the environment or to prevent catastrophes that can bring suffering to thousands. The question "Where is God when people suffer?" needs a satisfying answer. Could the answer be found in a source many want to deny?

by Darris McNeely

I am a child of the '60s. I grew up listening to all the music of the period. One of my favorite groups was Creedence Clearwater Revival. One of their best songs, "Who'll Stop the Rain," carries a plaintive question of the ages. Here is the first stanza:

Long as I remember
The rain been comin' down.
Clouds of myst'ry pourin'
Confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages
Tryin' to find the sun;
And I wonder, still I wonder
Who'll stop the rain?

In this song "rain" is a metaphor for the problems and suffering of humanity through the ages. A mournful voice asks, "Who will end the problems we see around us on this planet?"

It's a good question, one that deserves an answer.

I remember reading an article after the 9/11 terrorist attack. It had rained in New York a few days afterwards, bringing gloom and adding to the labor of those attempting to rescue any survivors from the rubble of the World Trade Center.

The writer, like everyone, was grappling with the reality of the attack and was saying to God, "If you could not have stopped the terrorists, why can't you at least stop the rain?" He looked to the skies and wondered why the rain had to add to the difficulty of the suffering.

"Nature's awful lottery"

We have in the South Asian tsunami disaster a foretaste of greater disasters prophesied in your Bible to come on this world. The number of dead—over 260,000 by the latest count—is horrible, beyond our ability to comprehend.

We naturally ask the questions: "Why? What does it mean? Why does God allow such suffering?" In reality, this is a great anguished cry of, "God, if you exist, why don't You do something?"

We are not in control of our environment. We find ourselves at the whim of such catastrophes. Other, man-made disasters—such as terrorist attacks, war and sometimes famine and disease—come because man has freedom of choice, and with that come the consequences of wrong decisions made at every level of mankind.

Read the full article at www.wnponline.org/wnp/wnp0502/index.htm

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