Victorious Giant-Lessons from Haiti

Just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, a devastating earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, the Capital of Haiti, causing untold dead, damages and suffering.

The Haiti's President, Rene Preval, called the death toll "unimaginable" as he surveyed the destruction wrecked by the earthquake. He told The Miami Herald, “Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them. All of the hospitals are packed with people. It is a catastrophe.”

Limbs protruded from disintegrated concrete. Groans and muffled cries came from deep inside the wrecks of buildings. Hundreds are arrayed in a macabre tangle of limbs outside a morgue in Port-au-Prince near the grievously wounded. In every street were rows of fly-blown corpses and crowds of wandering refugees, seeking a place to lie down for the night with their few remaining possessions.

On Thursday, The International Red Cross said the quake had killed between 40,000 and 50,000 people, while Haitian officials had warned that the overall death toll might top 100,000. Later, the death toll was put at over 200,000

Terrible? You can say that again!

I will say this much for the catastrophe, it teaches us some important spiritual lessons.

Life is short.

A man's life is short. It can come to an abrupt end – when one least expect. Like most other people of the world, the Haiti earthquake victims welcomed the New Year 2010 with joy, singing and dancing. Little did they realize they would never see the end of the first month of the year.

James 4:14,
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
1Peter 1:24; 1John 2:17; Psalm 103:15; Isaiah 40:6.

When you consider the brevity of life, you will see to it that you don’t waste it on frivolous things, things that do not have eternal value, things that you will lose when you leave the world, things that cannot benefit you after this life.

Life has a way of changing the best of plans of man.

The well-made plan of man does not impress death. Excellent planning skill is mocked by the Grim Reaper. The Old Man With the Scythe does not hesitate to use the scythe just because a man has in his hand a most important plan needing immediate execution. Disaster does not consult a man before it strikes.

James 4:13-14,
Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow…

Needless to say, all, or at least, most of the victims of the Haiti earthquakes have good plans made for this year. They entered the new year with great hope for the future. But hardly had they entered the new than disaster struck and all the carefully-laid plans could no longer be pulled off, nor even be considered anymore.

This shows us that plans can only be made and fulfilled with the consent of God.

They behave stupidly who make plans for years to come without God, counting on long years to accomplish their worldly objectives and enjoy the fruits of their earthly efforts, in disregard of the fact of the shortness and uncertainty of human life.

Psalm 127:1,
Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

We must look up to God for help and grace to accomplish every plan we make. We must learn to trust Him from day to day.

But the most important thing is that our plans should focus mainly on things that will bring us eternal reward when we leave the world. It is folly to spend our lives planning for what won’t profit us at the end of this life. We must always be prepared for eternity.

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