Book Review: My Tsunami Journey by Mark Dowd

My Tsunami Journey: The Quest for God in a Broken World

Mark Dowd’s tsunami journey began in a conversation with his father on Christmas, 2004.

Mark and his parents turned on the television to see what was happening on the day after Christmas. They were flooded with images of tsunamis causing devastation in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Mark’s father turned off the broadcast. After some silence, he said five words which sparked Mark’s tsunami journey and his book.

“God could have stopped that.”

His father’s words raised the kinds of questions which have shaped Mark’s life. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Mark chose to study politics at Exeter. At the age of 21, Mark had entered the Dominican Order, the Order of Preachers, in Oxford. His spiritual journey has taken him out of the Dominicans and into a career as a television documentary producer.

Mark proposed a documentary to explore the tsunami and its effects within the context of how we experience evil and suffering. His tsunami journey included stops in London, Banda Aceh, India, Thailand, and Rome, as well as his own journey of reflection.

He spoke with, and asked questions of, people from a variety of spiritual traditions and religious backgrounds.

Mark’s book is not a survey of religious teaching about the problem of suffering. It is personal and direct, not theoretical. It is more focused on how we and our spiritual life survives natural disasters than on how we can understand pain.

Our quest for God in a broken world is not merely a way to solve conceptual problems or feel comfortable with our questions. His tsunami journey is an example to follow which includes asking questions and listening to how people respond.

The journey described in Mark’s book began with his father’s honest observation.

Taking Our Own Tsunami Journey

Mark’s tsunami journey is impressive and inspiring. Reading his book gives us a significant number of insights and questions for our own reflection. The conversations he has with people around the world and the questions he asks fuel our own contemplation.

Many of us know people in distant places primarily through electronic communication. We are unlikely to be able to travel to all the places Mark went and have access to the people with whom he had conversations. Most of us are, though, able to take our own tsunami journey.

Mark’s journey began because he and his family saw something happening on television and responded. His father captured his attention with his five words.

“God could have stopped that.”

Many of us choose not to pay attention to what we see in the world around us or what we hear from other people. Events and people tend to wash over us and wash away. We dismiss what people say and miss the truth their words might contain.

We have become people who are intimidated and overwhelmed by what happens around us. Some of us have convinced ourselves we cannot take time to pay attention and respond to people around us. We are ironically less able to take time to respond to life as our lives become more full of information and details.

Some of us seem to be inundated with information about what is happening in the world but lack the wisdom to understand it.

Fortunately for us, Mark Dowd was able to pay attention to what was happening on the day after Christmas in 2014. He could see the devastating results of the tsunami halfway around the world and he could hear his father’s honest words.

Each of us can follow his example and take our own tsunami journey.

Where Will My Tsunami Journey Take Us?

Reading about Mark’s journey is an initial first step in taking our own. We can learn from his insights and example.

Parts of Mark’s tsunami journey were extensively planned and prepared, while others were more spontaneous. He was not able to predict where each step would take him or what would happen each day.

Mark asks excellent questions in his conversations with others people, which is another example for us to follow. We learn by formulating questions to ask other people and by listening to their responses.

My Tsunami Journey is not a road map for our own journeys, but an example for us to follow. Our own journeys will not trace the exact steps of Mark’s. His questions and insights, though, can inspire and spark our own imaginations.

We can begin to pay attention to our world in new ways. As our lives come into contact with tsunamis, pandemics, wars, suffering, pain, and death we can learn to respond with understanding. When people speak to us we can begin to hear them and reflect on what they say.

We cannot know everywhere our journey will take us. Each step is an adventure.

My Tsunami Journey Will Open Our Eyes

Mark’s tsunami journey was about more than experiencing the devastation from the waves for himself.

He was exploring more significant questions and insights than the details about the tsunami. His journey was not about gaining experiences, nor simply about gathering facts.

Like Mark’s tsunami journey, our own journeys open doors for us. Each day is filled with lessons about the role of spiritual life in our lives. There is more for us to consider than what usually meets our eyes.

None of us want to experience another tsunami or pandemic or war, nor do we want anyone else to experience them.

Mark’s book can help us recognize our choices are not as limited as we thought they were. Our understanding of spiritual life can grow and change.

God is not restricted to being either a cosmic vending machine or a distant, removed force. There is more to God than that. God is here, in this broken world with us.

My Tsunami Journey is a book which will help us gain valuable questions and insights.

How will we begin to take our own tsunami journey today?

Where will our tsunami journey help us go this week?

[Image by Wipf and Stock Publishers]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual director in Southern California. He is a recovering assistant district attorney and associate university professor, and is a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com and his email address is [email protected].