We should identify not with the wise, but with others who are blind. When we do something good, it's because the works of God are displayed in us. We can work the works of God by helping other blind people dig out of physical and spiritual rubble. In recent months, Pastor David E. Crosby of First Baptist Church of New Orleans has seen the results: People "are startled by our concern for them and our willingness to help them out. And the resistance to the gospel of grace in the Lord Jesus is falling away."

 We don't know why disasters hit particular people, but we do know that they should push us toward doing the works that God commends. Dorothy Sayers, in "The Whimsical Christian," calls Christianity the only religion that gives value to suffering. Christianity does that by affirming the reality of suffering and the opportunity to wrench some good out of it, as Christ did when he died for all who trust in Him. Christianity affirms the same about all our personal disasters, and offers the same opportunity.

 It would be great to understand the purpose behind Katrina, or behind Turkey's earthquake in 1939 or Pakistan's this fall, but 19th century pastor Charles Spurgeon put it this way: "Providence is wonderfully intricate. Ah! You want always to see through Providence, do you not? You never will, I assure you. You have not eyes good enough. You want to see what good that affliction was to you; you must believe it. You want to see how it can bring good to the soul; you may be enabled in a little time, but you cannot see it now; you must believe it. Honor God by trusting him."

 New Year's resolution: to trust Him more.