"Survivor" guilt

[JackVk]

As you probably know, Joplin, MO, was hit hard by a tornado last night. 89 people died. On Saturday night, there were some tornado warnings here on the Kansas side as well. There was also damage and destruction in a small town near Emporia, KS. A tornado warning was issued near my home in Johnson County, KS. I prayed a rosary while the sirens were going off, and eventually the tornado warning was downgraded to a severe thunderstorm warning.

(Note:a tornado warning, for those of you do not know, means that a funnel cloud is forming, but a tornado has not touched the ground.)

I just watched footage of a family in Joplin taking shelter while the twister was hitting their home. They were praying as well. Why did God help me, but not them? Why wasn’t my home anywhere near being scratched, while theirs was leveled?

 

[tonyrey]

1. God does not control events directly but through the laws of nature.
2. He does intervene but if He constantly intervened we would never know what to expect.
3. It is impossible for us to know the extent to which He intervenes.
4. We do know there are far worse fates than death in a natural disaster…

 

[DJgang]

We lost our place of business last month.

My husband and two employees were there, they survived.

Good can come from bad…my husband has changed.

Total devastation in my area, what hurts the most is when everyone starts back living like nothing happened, yet we still have all this devastation around us…it hurts so bad.

but you pick up and keep going and you take the time to thank God for everything!

 

[DaveBj]

I had the same feelings after the April 27 storms (I live in Cullman County, saw Cullman’s afternoon tornado in person, watched the Tuscaloosa/Birmingham storms on TV, and had the detritus from someone else’s house fall in our front yard, altho our house was untouched). I had significant feelings of “survivor guilt.” I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t pray at all for myself when I see things like that coming. I pray for mercy on those in the path of the storms, but as far as I myself am concerned, whatever is going to happen, is going to happen.

DaveBj

 

[tonyrey]

I had the same feelings after the April 27 storms (I live in Cullman County, saw Cullman’s afternoon tornado in person, watched the Tuscaloosa/Birmingham storms on TV, and had the detritus from someone else’s house fall in our front yard, altho our house was untouched). I had significant feelings of “survivor guilt.” I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t pray at all for myself when I see things like that coming. I pray for mercy on those in the path of the storms, but as far as I myself am concerned, whatever is going to happen, is going to happen.

DaveBj

What is going to happen depends on the laws of nature and our decisions but more fundamentally God’s Providence.