Monday, September 11, 2017

Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Fires, and False Security


Life is fragile. Of all the nations of the world there are few which live as far away from that knowledge as the citizens of the United States. Two oceans protect us. Economic and natural resources cushion life for many of us. We live in a cocoon – unless of course we live in poverty, but we don’t like to think about that segment of the population – too unpleasant.

Yes, to be sure, there is suffering at all economic levels; sickness, relational problems, and the death rate still remains at 100%; but we have learned to isolate those things and medicate ourselves so we don’t have to dwell on those unpleasantries too long. We are good at building emotional and psychological and spiritual firewalls. We are a rich enough country so that our dead no longer need to be laid out in the parlor at home, we can make appointments with them and see them during viewing hours. We no longer bare one another’s burdens, we pay someone with initials after his or her name to listen to our fears; we no longer need our neighbor, we can pay someone to be our neighbor for an hour a week…well…actually 50 minutes.

But then a hurricane comes, or a tornado, or a forest fire, or an earthquake – then we see the best and the worst of humanity; from neighbor helping neighbor to neighbor stealing from neighbor and running from neighbor. Then death can lie at our front door or even within our home. Then the fact that life is fragile may strike us for a moment, if not for 50 minutes.

We live with a sense of false security, satiated by pleasure and false values – we think “it” (whatever “it” is) will never happen to us. We are fools. We are like hogs being fed for slaughter. Make us fat with ourselves so we don’t think too much, entertain us, brainwash us with transient values, medicate us into oblivion and we will be a people living without eternal purpose, a people living as if we are gods, a people living without the knowledge that life is fragile and that today may be our last day.

Amid the ashes of the fires in the West, and amid the destruction of hurricanes in the South, various types of people will emerge. There will be those who trusted in Christ before these events and they will continue to find their refuge in Him, knowing that even should loved ones pass through the portal of death that death in Christ is indeed a portal into the deeper presence of God. There will be those who were merely “church folks” who will either come to faith in Christ or who may reject the notion all together because of their experience. There will be those who did not know Jesus beforehand who will come to know Him through the tragedy and who will come to understand that they are more than accidents looking for a place to happen. There will be those who curse God, a God they may not believe in. There will be those who take credit for their own survival – fools indeed they are (in the Biblical sense). But perhaps the most tragic group will be those who say that they have learned that material things are not everything but that family and other people mean more…but who nevertheless still do not live in a relationship with God; I say these may be the most tragic group because they are so close but so far away. Our goodness can be our greatest enemy for we can become self-satisfied with it and others can affirm us in it.

We will see the image of God in the goodness of humanity in these tragedies. We will also see the evil of fallen humanity in the tragedies. We will see predators and servants, lovers and haters, givers and thieves. We will see those who sacrifice themselves and those who sacrifice others.

If we think about it all long enough we may even hear the voice of God speaking to us about who we are, who we should be, why we were created, how much He loves us, and about how He desires a personal relationship with us through His Son Jesus Christ.

Perhaps it’s time to trade our false sense of security for the secure love of God in Jesus Christ.




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