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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