“Dear Rev. Sheri,

In church this morning, some people were talking about what happened in Japan as God’s vengeance.  I don’t know how I feel about that.  I mean, is God really so cruel?”   – Christina

Dear Christina,

I think I must have seen your question mere moments after you submitted it.  I had another question picked out to answer today, but it’s become more than obvious to me that I’m meant to answer this one.  I was looking at video of the devastation on YouTube and couldn’t believe some of the comments I was seeing saying this exact type of thing.  What do they mean by God’s Vengeance?  Do they mean the bombing of Pearl Harbor in WWII?  I’m pretty sure the U.S. itself dished out enough “vengeance” on that one.  I do not see anything good about what happened then, and I don’t see good in what’s happening now.

My energy is maybe more connected to these natural disasters than the average person.  My first experience happened back in December of 2004, the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean.  I woke up from a horrible nightmare that had me running for the bathroom as nausea overwhelmed my senses.  I could only remember bits and pieces of the dream, but it was one of my very real ones that always scare me half to death.

There was a hotel with tall white pillars, a beach, palm trees, and high waves coming toward the land.  I ran into the water trying to tell everyone to run, but no one would listen to me.  It was like I was the only one seeing the danger.  I was screaming and tried to grab a little girl out of the water, but I couldn’t.  I realized no one could see me, like I was a ghost.  I screamed and cried as the waves hit, and that’s when I woke up.  I had no idea it had actually happened.

All day, I felt like something horrible was going to happen to someone I loved.  I called all of our family members to make sure everyone was okay.  Later, we drove across town to my husband’s family to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday.  The whole drive there, I felt like I was on the verge of a panic and had to repeatedly calm myself.  I had never felt anything like that before and didn’t understand what was happening.

At some point, someone turned on the television.  The news came on with pictures of the devastation caused by the tsunami.  Until then, I had no idea what had happened.  Scene after scene of the devastation hit me like nothing I could possibly explain.  I saw the hotel with the tall white pillars, the beach and palm trees and so many victims.  Seeing the people that were in my dream, now lifeless.  Children.  It was too much.  Even now, I can barely type this.  It’s still so horrible.  I felt their fear.  I didn’t understand it all then, but what I had felt earlier was my connection the higher realms.  I believe I felt God’s sadness, Heaven’s reaction to what happened. I could never believe, even for one second, that our Creator – the energies that love us so unconditionally – would ever cause such horrific events or punish us in such a way.

My first experience with these events being termed “God’s Vengeance” came about with Katrina hitting New Orleans.  Shortly after that happened, I attended a wedding where I met one of the most ignorant people I have ever met.  Yes, you read that right.  I’m still human, and I get angry.  The man my husband I were sitting next to started talking about the hurricane and how those people deserved to die.  According to this man, New Orleans was being punished for its sins … psychics in particular.  Well, as you can imagine, I didn’t take this very well.  Normally, I tend to be an understanding person, respectful of each individual for where they are in their personal growth and their own spiritual journey.  But, in this case, I wanted to slap this man.  I know I shouldn’t have felt that way, and I’m ashamed to admit it, but I couldn’t believe someone could think such a thing, much less say it out loud to a stranger.  He was such a hateful person.  I didn’t cause any harm to him, but I did leave him standing there looking like the ignorant fool he was – again, I acknowledge my human emotions here.  I was sick, and we left shortly thereafter.

I have been steadily praying for all those touched by the horrific events caused by the changes to our environment and how our planet is reacting to these changes.  These changes will affect us all, and we should – as human beings – feel connected and empathic toward those experiencing the worst of it.  From the floods in Australia to the recently devastated Japan, these are our people!  They are all human beings and connected to us all!

How do I know God isn’t punishing these people?  Because I felt what Heaven felt with the destruction caused by the Indian Ocean and because I still feel the great sadness that reaches across the ocean now.  I know people have all kinds of Bible verses and messages from other religious books backing up their opinions on what they feel is “God’s wrath”, but I will never believe it.  Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, and I do not intend to offend anyone for their personal beliefs and do respect everyone on their own personal journey.  However, with respect to this question, I’m giving my answer.

I have never once experienced the hatefulness of such human comments from the spirit world.  The energy I feel from the Divine has always come from a place of love and compassion.  Our creator – God, the Goddess, Allah, however you prefer – has never given me any reason to believe such things would be caused by Divine influence.

Christina, you should be commended on seeing through what other people see and thinking for yourself.  Religion can be a very good thing, but we have to remember that it’s also made up of people, and people are not infallable.  People are afraid of what might happen to them, so they make up reasons of why these tragedies happened elsewhere.  “Those people deserved it, but that will never happen here.”  Fear breeds ignorance, and ignorance breeds more fear.

Instead of giving in to ignorance, fear and even the anger that I still obviously struggle with, we should be focusing on love and compassion and what we can do to help heal our world.  Send love and compassion to those affected.  Give financially, if you can.  Pray for them.  Meditate and ask Heaven to send angels in for aid.

Lately, I’ve been doing my Chakra Healing with the Angels Meditation more because of the end section where the energy you work with in the meditation is sent out through the world and our universe.  I use this meditation to help me channel Divine healing energy out to those places needing extra help right now.  I encourage anyone reading this to do the same or at least send out some positive thoughts to our brothers and sisters across the world.  Light a candle for those who have been lost and those that remain behind.  Use the flickering of your single flame to add to the others sending out their own love and prayers.  Whether you are in Europe, Australia, Japan, the United States or Timbuktu, we are all the same people.  We are one!

In my recent post regarding teen suicides in my area, I talked about Light and Darkness.  I believe we all have Light and Darkness within us, but we choose what side to take.  We choose who we are.  Will we give in to Darkness with our ignorance and hate, or will be embrace the Light with love and compassion?  We all have that choice.  That is what God gives us … choice — free will.  We have the choice to create our own destruction, or we can create a world where one people stand together.

In Light and Love,

Sheri

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