Writing #7: 1 John, Colossians, 2 Peter

I'm sorry if you were expecting a writing or two in the last couple of days. I do have children and a wife. We are always so busy. I have been getting finished later and later each day--I think. Well, blah, blah, blah.

I know I should not make excuses that way. I'm sorry. I'm trying to be honest here but I confess that life gets in the way too often. The world--have you noticed how much death there is in this 'not altogether intelligently designed' (George Will: http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/will1.asp) world--is driving me crazy, and not in a very good way. Frankly, if I may be frank for a mere moment, I'm a bit tired of this world. It is getting near the point of stupidity. Last year a tsunami killed--how many people? Last week an earthquake killed close to what, 40,000 people? Is life that fragile? Is life that cheap? Can life really be so devastating, so unimaginably, profoundly meaningless? Are we like the millions of 'Canadian Soldiers' congregating on and around my house that are here today and dead within a week? It seems that way. And I confess that there are times when I allow the cracks in my personal veneer to show. This must be one of those times.

You see, I not only believe; I want to believe. But, and here is the part that is frightening, I cannot comprehend what it means that 40,000 lives are suddenly not here any more. There are probably some strong atheists, and theists too, that have all sorts of answers that make sense. I'll bet the esteemed Dr. Dobson, the one who 'knows more than he should', has a pretty good idea what the Lord was thinking the other day when he announced to the god of this earth 'their lives are in your hands.' I'm a little deeper than Mr. Dobson; I have no idea. Enter John's first letter to the church and his comment, brash as it may be, "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." And the one that is worse, "...for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that this means there are a lot of people who are not going to overcome the world. The key, we are told, is to build more, spend more, eliminate more and more of this or that. I wonder if these things will really solve the problem of death in this world. I wonder why it is that no one is asking the really important questions like: What will the world be like now that 40,000 people are gone in a matter of minutes? Or, I wonder where those 40,000 people are right now? People keep saying we need to do something to fix the earth so that such things will stop happening. We need to 'solve' the problem of global warming. We need to 'solve' the problem of shifting tectonic plates. We need to start driving more hybrid vehicles that burn less fossil fuels. We need more politicians who have a greater vision for the future. Blah. Blah. Blah. I wonder why no one is asking the really important question: If a tsunami can take out 100,000 people in a matter of minutes, and an earthquake can take out 40,000 in a matter of minutes, and a hurricane can wipe a city off the face of the earth in a matter of hours--if all these things can happen 'there', what is to stop them from happening 'here' and wiping out the entire planet in a matter of minutes?

I'm no alarmist or fatalist. I'm a firm believer that per Colossians, He has all things under control. It's not a matter of 'what if', but a matter of 'what when.' It is a matter of whether or not we are going to be prepared for whatever hits here and what will happen when we are suddenly no longer here but find ourselves, instead, there. The question is, Are we ready for there? Will we overcome?

I don't thnk it is a matter of if, but when. Peter makes it quite clear: The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. I imagine a young Simba from The Lion King practicing his roar on a lizard that walks by while he sits on a rock. He squeaks out a baby roar. Then another. Then another. At the end he belches out a roar that echoes down the ravine. We get the idea next when the ground starts to shake, rocks rattle, and the roar becomes the deafening stampede of a herd of wildebeests. These earthquakes, tsunami's, and hurricanes have nothing and everything to do with global warming. They have more to do with small belches, small groans 'while the creation awaits for the Sons of God to be revealed.' Soon, someday, later the baby belch will become the full blown roar of an adult lion, heard for miles around the Serengetti.

Peter's question becomes ever more poignant as the days, and natural disasters go by, 'Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?' His answer is even more devastating, 'You ought to live holy and godly lives..." Sooner or later people of this planet need to figure out that we are not helping ourselves when a disaster strikes and we, in the power of the indomitable human spirit, simply shrug it off, throw a dollar at it, and rebuild it bigger and better than before. Woe are we if we continue to miss the question. Woe are we when we get the question and supply the wrong answer. But I am not merely content to rebuild what is broken. I want to overcome. I don't simply want the structure, the framework, the shell of what was. I'm looking for something entirely new and pristine: But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Jerry