A friend recommended to me a book that he believed was a true revelation of what people experienced in our homeland. I was encouraged and convinced and decided to order this book. I was fascinated to discover that ‘Lazada’ had it for sale and, it was delivered to me in next to no time! I guess I was destined to read this book or, was it God’s sovereignty?
Whilst I lived thought the war times, I was not living in the war zone. I was aware that there was a war and people were suffering. However, I was not experiencing the war and therefore, never really had any idea of what people were experiencing.
The four of us, we packed in haste and badly and fled the house. It was the first time being displaced together and on such short notice – for ten days we struggled from place to place. First—despite my old promise to myself—we sought refuge in a nearby temple, as we had been told to do so. But following directions did not protect us: the military bombed the temples too……Once, horribly, they bombed Jaffna with barrels of human shit…..No words can conjure the stink of those days. Even the holiest temple crowded with refugees, became the foulest dump, smeared with waste…….As others died in shelling, by some miracle, we did not; we gathered our dwindling things and moved and moved again…..we went from kovil to church to kovil, hunting for one with rooms that hadn’t been bombed. We could not believe it – to begin to believe all of this, we had to write it down. You must understand: I have to tell myself again, because even though I was there, it seems impossible…..
brotherless night by v v ganeshananthan
My heart is trying to relate to human suffering and how the bible links suffering. Should I be thankful for not being present in the warzone or, should I be thankful for being spared? Is this destiny?
This narrative captures the intense trauma of displacement and the horrors of the Sri Lankan civil war in Jaffna. My proximity to the war zone — just six hours away—naturally intensifies my empathy and forces me to confront why some suffer deeply while others are spared.
My reference point, my safe space, is to dwell on the word of God. The thing that encourages me is that the Bible does not teach that suffering is distributed based on personal guilt or righteousness, Randomness of Tragedy: Jesus explicitly addresses this in Luke 13:4-5 regarding a tower that collapsed and killed 18 people. He stated that they were not worse sinners than anyone else; tragedy can happen to anyone. Scripture teaches me that humanity lives in a fallen world where free will allows humans to inflict horrific cruelty—like bombing refugees—on one another and, the entire book of Job concludes that human beings cannot fully comprehend the cosmic reasons behind suffering or why the innocent undergo immense pain.
As I read through the horrors of the war, finding myself safe while others suffer is certainly one of the heaviest emotional burdens to carry. I kept thinking of myself in the situation and I keep asking, is it superior favor? Is it? I once again run to my safe space and the Bible frames this survival through a lens of stewardship and mercy. I surely can be deeply thankful to God for my current safety and peace.
I read on, my mind continues to wonder, is this gratitude a declaration that God loves me more than those who are suffering? I can think so and pat my back and be totally ignorant on what is happening or happened to those affected. There is always help, Romans 12:15 commands believers to “weep with those who weep.” My heart’s desire to relate to this suffering is a biblical response. True gratitude for safety should always coexist with deep grief for the displaced. I am able to embrace this slowly, being spared is an invitation to act. Esther was reminded by Mordecai that she was spared and placed in the palace “for such a time as this” to save others (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther%204%3A14&version=NIV). My safety gives me the stability and resources to pray, speak up, or help those in need.
I still have a question, was it my destiny to be spared?
The tension between Destiny (Fatalism) and Sovereignty (Divine Leadership) is one of the oldest debates in theology. I needed to spend time understanding this as it bothered me and I realized that I had a misunderstanding of how I had interpreted this earlier. I lost my Sister and Brother in tragic accidents and my belief was destiny. Thankfully, I believe that I can now explain this simply. Destiny means everything is pre-written by a script that one cannot change. Destiny says that “It was my time to suffer and it was my time to be safe”. Sovereignty means God is the ultimate authority – “I live in a chaotic world where anyone can suffer. But God promise to take that suffering and somehow redeem it, using it to build empathy, endurance, and love.” And if I am to explain it to myself, this is what I can say:
I was not spared because I have a “better destiny” than the refugees (or my siblings). I am spared because of the random geography of a broken world I live in.
However, God’s sovereignty means that my current safety is not an accident. He can use my safe position to give me the strength to care for, speak up for, and love those who were caught in the crossfire.
A beautiful story from Genesis 45 onwards will help explain this better:
- Joseph experienced human cruelty firsthand. His own brothers beat him, threw him into a pit, and sold him into slavery.
- Later, Joseph was falsely accused of rape and imprisoned for years.
- Joseph did not have a charmed “destiny” that kept him safe from trauma. Instead, God’s sovereignty used the evil choices of humans to position Joseph to save millions from famine.
- When Joseph finally reveals his identity to his terrified brothers, he says: “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you… It was not you who sent me here, but God.”
- Joseph perfectly summarizes the balance between human free will and divine sovereignty: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
Joseph’s brothers acted with complete free will and malicious intent. God did not force them to hate Joseph. However, God’s sovereignty was so vast that He took their evil actions and rewrote the ending into something life-saving.
FOR TWENTY YEARS IT was like that. I delivered a stream of information to the United Nations, and they listened and wrote their own reports, even when they took no action. When the Indians left Sri Lanka, when my parents left Jaffna for London to live with Aran, when the tsunami hit, when the ceasefire briefly held, when the War on Terror came for the Tigers, I wrote. More honestly, I should say: we wrote. During the day—at last a doctor—I treated patients in an emergency room. At night, I picked up the phone to talk with Varathan. It was slower and mote difficult now that we were farther apart, but we still followed the same meticulous processes of verification that Anjali and Varathan had developed before she died.
v v ganeshananthan
We wrote perhaps ten such Reports in two decades. Then, at last, in the spring of 2009, the end of the war drew near.
My thanks go out to the untiring effort of the author of this book and her mentor who was killed in the war. They wanted to make sure that what they presented was verified. It was not a story to make one hate a government or a country, it was clearly a first hand account of tragedy and suffering and yet she redeemed it, using it to build empathy, endurance, and love.
My heart goes out to the many lives lost, wasted. I think of the suicide bomber who was victimized, abused, and shamed and chose to take revenge mercilessly. There are many stories everyday and all I can say is this, God’s sovereignty means that my current safety is not an accident. He can use my safe position to give me the strength to care for, speak up for, and love those who are caught in the crossfire.
INSPIRE 