SENTINEL WATCH February 24, 2003 Issue

'He's got the whole world in His hands'

By Marilyn Jones Senior Writer

Does God really have the "whole world in His hands"? Or are those just hopeful, but unrealistic, words? Are we actually just victims being buffeted about in the storms of disasters, war, famine, epidemics? For so many, the daily news in the last couple of years has increasingly instilled anxiety and sadness and fear.

In fact, it's gotten to the point that sometimes I dread turning on the radio or opening the paper. I ask myself, Am I going to be hit with another jolt of something devastating? And if that's the case, what can I do about it? Maybe I should just shut down—"tune out," as the saying went in the 1960s. If I don't know about it, maybe it won't affect me, and I won't have to be disturbed by the plight of people suffering from corrupt regimes, poverty, hopeless diseases, or war.

But then there's that old anecdote about the person during the Second World War who said, "First they came for the dissidents. I stayed out of it. Then they came for the Jews. And I did nothing. Then they took the Catholics. It didn't concern me, so I did nothing. Then the Gypsies were taken. I remained silent. And then they took away the misfits. What could I do? I did nothing. And then one day there was no one else left, and they came for me."

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