How Do We Respond When Evil Prevails?, an article by Lisa Borden

Published: July 9th, 2008

Though I have lived a good number of years in Africa, I confess to not being totally up on the sad history of Zimbabwe.  It is a ravished country that has been pulled into despair over the 28 years that Mr. Mugabe has been in power.
This is what I do know...

The people of Zimbabwe voted in March and their clear desire was that the ruling party exit immediately. The standing parliament and the president himself were shown to not be the people's choice for their future.  The people spoke up and said it was time for something new.

In the calm of the days after the election, the nation dared to believe that things were going well and that change was on its way.  But the calm was short-lived.

First there were the delayed announcements that denied the opposition the right to celebrate their victory. Issues were raised in court, accusations of irregularities and rigged counts were proclaimed in the local press, and Mugabe's initial compliant posture crumbled.  He became defiant.

Then the violence began.  As one eye witness has said, to repeat the atrocities is too graphic for most readers.  Know that rape, torture and murder have been regularly employed to convince people that they were in the wrong to vote for the opposition.  And in order to ensure that you voted "correctly" in the run-off elections (that took place on Friday) the same weapons were wielded.  

Mugabe ran un-opposed (the opposition boycotted) and he has now been declared the landslide winner.  I suppose that's true, given that he was the only candidate.

In many ways, there will be some relief for the people of Zimbabwe now.  No, their economy is not likely to improve and their difficult lives are not likely to become less grueling.  They will now return to the relative calm of living under a dictator who does not appear to care at all about the people of "his" country.  Maybe this will feel like a welcome end to the horrors of the last few months.  Maybe this is a light, however dim,  at the end of a harrowing tunnel.

But I am left confused.  From my vantage point on African soil, I am broken-hearted and confused that this cycle of abusive leadership is allowed to carry on.  I know that God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed and I just can't fathom how broken his heart must be for his Zimbabwean children, or why he doesn't rush in and end their suffering.

I want to be angry.  I want to shake my fist at heaven and ask God what he is so busy doing that he cannot bring justice to this place where the inflation rate is reportedly approaching 3 billion percent.  Could he not hear the cries of not just one or two, but an entire nation?  

And I'm not even a resident of Zimbabwe.  I wonder at the depth of confusion and anger amid the community of believers there who have prayed and fasted and prayed and fasted and prayed and fasted for relief, justice and change.

But this regime is being allowed to go on. The situation is so dire that even the usually peaceful Desmond Tutu recently called on the international community to intervene  "by force" if necessary.

So what are my choices?  I can close my eyes and ignore the painful reality of what I know the situation to be.  I can open my eyes and be overcome by despair or anger or a loss of faith.  But I don't really like either of these options.

I want to learn to pray for the world.  Revelation promises that there is a tree growing in heaven along the banks of  the River of God that sprouts leaves that are "for the healing of the nations."

It's a beautiful image...but what does it mean?

I don't know!  I don't know how leaves in heaven will heal nations but I do recognize that their presence means God is fully aware of the broken state of the world.  He is, after all, El Roi, the God Who Sees.

And so I call upon "El Roi" and remind him of his name.  I ask him to be true to his nature, his promises, his heart for his creation.  I accept that God's wisdom very rarely looks like what I think it should look like and I relinquish my need to understand how or why he acts and what he does and does not allow to happen on this earth.

My prayer is simple, really.  "Have mercy, Son of David."

I choose to trust that he will.

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