earthquakes are a reminder to repent and be ready

An 8.9 earthquake in Japan?!?

That was the news that greeted me Friday morning when I checked my email.

Wow.

I live in California, not far from the coast.  I can’t see the coast from my house; a large ridge separates us (and protects us from tsunamis, in case you were wondering).  But, I’m not that far from the coast.  And our house is very close to the San Andreas Fault.  In fact, our local water supply is stored in a reservoir located over that faultline, and that’s a mere half-mile from our house.  There are lovely walking/biking trails along the reservoir, and my husband often goes biking there.

California is earthquake country.  It’s known for earthquakes.  And there’s always talk about how the Big One is coming.  There was the Loma Prieta quake in 1989 that knocked down a portion of the Bay Bridge, leveled a section of freeway in San Francisco (that the city decided not to rebuild), and shook up Candlestick Park as a World Series game was being played there.  We have earthquakes.

I’ve felt two small quakes since living here.  I hardly realized they were quakes until they were over, and we had no damage from them.

But the news of this big quake was scary.  Very scary.  What if that happened here???

Now, logically, it seems that the tsunami resulting from the 8.9 quake did more damage in Japan then the actual quake itself.  And, there’s just no way a tsunami could hit us here.  But a quake would cause a lot of damage in the Bay Area.  Our lifeline, especially for those of us who live on the Peninsula, is our bridges: the Dumbarton, the San Mateo, the Bay, and the Golden Gate (not to mention two other bridges up in the North Bay).  If a big quake were to compromise any one of those bridges (or, God forbid, all of them), it would be catastrophic for the Bay Area.

Whew.  That’s a lot to handle.

It’s scary.

But … I’m a Christian.  I’m not supposed to be scared of these things, right?

This is where it comes in handy to be married to a pastor.  I asked my dearly loved husband if it was a sin to be scared about big natural disasters.  He told me no.  “Read the Psalms,” he said.  “They’re full of emotion.  Having emotions in itself is not a sin.”  He went on to say that it’s what’s in our head and our heart of faith that counts; we can’t control our emotions.

Well, that was a comfort.  I thought about that some more and remembered that shortest of all passages in the Bible: “Jesus wept.”  Jesus had an emotional response to a sad situation.  It’s okay for me to have emotional responses, too.

That made me logically feel a bit better.  As far as healing my emotions goes, I quickly decided that the best plan for me would be to NOT watch the news reports, and be cautious about reading stories and looking at pictures about the Japan earthquake on the internet.  Thankfully, the San Francisco Giants were having their first pre-season baseball game tonight, and that was being televised beginning at 6pm, so I had something calming to watch on TV while I made supper.

A number of people on Facebook today were posting this passage from the Psalms, and when I was reminded of this passage, I posted it, too:

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in touble, therefore we will not fear though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its water roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Psalm 46: 1-3

God created the world, and he is still in control.  These quakes and storms, wars and rumors of wars, uprisings and dangerous times all serve to remind Christians of one thing: Jesus WILL return.

[Jesus said] “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.” — Matthew 24:6-8

Like a woman in labor, whose pain gets worse before her pain is finally over and she is presented with her child, these turbulent last days will only get worse.  These are God’s reminders to his people to repent and be always ready.  I’ll admit that part of me is still scared to see the Last Day, but my logical, faith-centered side is eager to begin living the joys of heaven.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

And help me not to be afraid until you finally do come.

self-less love

In earlier posts, I’ve mentioned that I’m slowly reading through the book The Theology of the Cross by Prof. Daniel Deutschlander.  This following section really struck me.  We all know 1 Corinthians 13, but at the weddings we’ve been to, we’ve probably never heard a pastor say this to the bride and groom:

[from page 100, with the author’s italics] We cannot help but notice in [1 Corinthians 13] that there is not a syllable about when it will be my turn, about getting my rights, about my feelings.  That is what makes these words so much an echo of Jesus’ call to us to deny self and to follow him.  Whether those who receive such benefits from me return them or not does not really matter when I am confident that the Lord will keep his Word and never leave or forsake me.

That is not an easy lesson to learn.  Have you perhaps thought when reading Paul’s exhortations to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5 that it would be a lot easier to be the kind of husband Paul says a husband should be if only the wife were the kind of wife she should be?  Or it would be a lot easier to be the kind of wife Paul says a wife should be if only the husband were the kind of husband that Paul says he should be.  But there is not a word in Ephesians 5 that suggests “You be this way if your spouse is that way.”  He does not even suggest that the spouse will be the way the spouse should be if you are first the way you should be.  Each is to love unconditionally as Christ loves us — not necessarily as the other loves us, as desirable as it would be for the other to love us as he or she should.  Again, showing love like Christ’s love may at times be repaid with like love.  But that is not the reason for showing it.  Nor is it an excuse for withdrawing love when it is not repaid.  If love is returned with love, then that is a beautiful thing indeed, a most delightful gift from God.  But it is not the cause, the reason, or the condition for showing love.

But when is it my turn?  The question keeps popping into our minds and getting in the way of love that acts solely for the benefit of the neighbor.  Don’t I have needs too that need to be addressed?  The question cannot be ignored.  The answer to it however is not to be found in the neighbor.  It is to be found in Christ.  He says, “Take up your cross and follow me.”  He remains the one who fills our eyes.  If we were looking elsewhere or at another, we would stumble; we would lose sight of him and end up in the ditch.  But we are looking at him.  And he it is who fills our need as well as our eyes.  To put it another way: When is it my turn?  That’s his problem, not mine.  When we need taking care of, he will find someone to take care of us.  When there is a cry in the heart and an ache in the soul, he will provide a saint of his own choosing to dry the tears and soothe the ache.  Turning away from following Christ to chase after and demand service from those we should serve is to lay down the cross before we get to heaven.  He knows our needs better than we do.  He supplies those needs in ways always better than the ones we would have found on our own and apart from him.

Now that’s real agape love!  May God help us married people as we aspire to that kind of love.

a royal love story?

You may or may not have heard the news stories that England’s Prince William, son of Prince Charles and Diana, is engaged to his long-time girlfriend, Kate Middleton.  It’s creating a media frenzy, and their wedding is already predicted to be “the wedding of the century.”

(When I told this to Lyd, she was amazed that there are real princes and princesses in the world, and that they live in real castles.  The lines between real and make-believe are starting to blur for her! 🙂  Anyway…)

I watched a portion of a TV special last night called “William and Kate: A Royal Love Story.”  (Yes, I’m pathetic.  Moving on…)  Near the end of the show, the main interviewer conversed with a knowledgeable-about-royalty British person and asked in a fervent, sincere tone, “Do you believe that William and Kate are truly in love?”  The interviewer, just like the rest of the world, wanted to know if this love story will have a happy ending.  In the interviewer’s mind, being truly in love made the difference between a happy marriage and a marriage doomed for disaster.

I heard that question and thought to myself What a mixed up view of love we have in Western culture.  We view love as a feeling, as a magical experience, and if you’re TRULY in love, then it will last.  It reminds me of the movie “The Princess Bride,” where Wesley’s numerous escapes from imminent death happen on the account that the love he and Buttercup share is “true love.”

But, what really is true love?  What makes love last?

I am attempting to work my way through the book The Theology of the Cross by Prof. Daniel Deutschlander.  It’s a book that’s not meant to be read quickly; it’s a deep, thought-provoking, soul-laying-bare book.  In my reading, I came across this section on what real love is.  We all have heard weddings where one of the Bible readings was from 1 Corinthians 13.  Deutschlander has this to say about that kind of love: