Was Australia Day Tarnished?

If you are an Australian, I hope you had a great Australia Day. I hope it was a relaxing time, a time to reflect a little on what you love about being an Aussie. We had a great Australian BBQ, in the local park, and of course the BBQ had the cooking power of a tea-light candle and every sausage took 135 minutes to cook.

On another note related to Australia Day, I'm a little sick and tired of people like Ray Martin who jeopardise the celebrations of Australia Day by questioning the relevancy of our current Australian Flag. What annoys me, is not so much the debate about whether Australia needs a new flag, but the fact that our Australia Day is tarnished with media coverage of debate after debate about the Union Jack. Where's the media coverage of what Australia Day means to so many Aussies, and good news stories about unity amongst families and reconciliations of communities, for example.

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I've been thinking a lot about this questions lately... 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' It's something I would love to preach on; the only problem is, I don't think I know the answer. What's your thoughts? God allows certain things to happen, but he does not necessarily orchestrate it to happen. Yet God will at times refrain from interfering into a situation, even though God can definitely make the situation better.

What about natural disasters? Are they merely the outworking of the choices of humanity coupled with the natural patterns of the environment? Or is it more? Is it the direct response from a God who is annoyed at a sinful people? These are tough questions, and obviously are not very comfortable discussion material for those affected by these disasters, including of course the Haitian people and the those affected by bush fires in Victoria last year.

Your thoughts?