3.9
In the early morning hours the boom and rumble shook Jana and I awake as we looked at each other with sleepy confusion.
“What was that?!”
We are accustomed to sonic booms here, as military aircraft frequently cruise over our home at Mach 1+, rattling our windows and scaring the breath out of us. Surely that was what cut into our sleep this morning, but I never recall them happening before dawn or after dusk.
Nope. 3.9. An earthquake whose epicenter was about fifty miles from our home vibrated through our home this morning. In light of the devastation in Japan, we have suffered nothing. The “quake” did no damage and lasted so briefly that many slept through it. Still, earthquakes are not the norm here. There is talk of the coming “big one” located as close as we are to the New Madrid fault, but the threat seems too West Coast for mid-Missourians. Tornadoes, hail storms, ice storms. floods and droughts – these brutalities are part of life here. Not earthquakes.
Ever since the horrible destruction endured by our friends in Joplin – 180 miles southwest – everyone is on edge. What disaster will befall us now? Was the early morning rumble today a pre-shock of worse things to come?
Harold Camping missed it at the end of May, but regardless of his defiance to set dates when Scripture declares “no one knows the day or hour”, the reality is that Christ is coming back soon. The clock is ticking. Every breath we take means that the renewal of all things is that much closer. The vibrations of Missouri rock and soil may not be the harbinger of the “big one,” but they should remind us of the temporary nature of much upon which we place our life foundations.
On May 22nd thousands of residents in Joplin, Missouri came face to face with the futility of trusting in material things to provide security. Life was brutally simplified. How many of us would be ready for such a purging? Sometimes the rumbling is a prelude, not to greater shaking, but to a slap in the face concerning the vanity of materialistic pursuits.
How would you react if tomorrow your wealth was turned to rubble?
I am not suggesting that anyone would/should immediately rejoice when being freed from the shackles of materialism. I am questioning how hope and meaning and purpose might be tested in the wake of extreme loss.
Am I willing to be shaken now from foundations that will prove weak and flawed on that Day?
my question is often this: What will my worship look like when the power goes out? We must be addressing the need to recognize God outside our limits, outside our “norms”, outside our expectations.
It’s the thing that Job did so brilliantly amid his devastation:
“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
And Jeremiah as he stood amid the rubble of Jerusalem in Lamentations 3:
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.”
As we know, nothing is certain in life but birth and death. God is there with us for both transitions. But in between there are traumas that send us in directions we could never have imagined. To work our way through these testing times we must do as the old hymn says, “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give”… we rest in the knowledge that His hand upon our journey is sure and loving.