... When The Sky Is Falling

“Supremes Rule Obamacare Legal”, is the summary headline just about everywhere this afternoon.  No use turning on the radio or television, you know what will be on.  Tornados, hurricanes, hundred-degree temperatures, murder, rape ---- all old news.  This is REAL news:  The Sky Is Falling!!!

NOW will you take seriously this Fortnight For Freedom and pray for our country?

I knew the court results even before I turned on the computer this afternoon; my phone has been ringing off the hook with requests for donations.  And when I finally looked at my email there were even more, many from the same people who had been phoning.  They seemed to indicate that donating to their efforts will solve everything, and perhaps it might, but it is no sure thing.  The truth of the matter is, when huge disasters strike us, or we are looking at them as they come roaring right at us, we just quiver and think this is the worst thing ever. 

It isn’t.

I mean, this law may seem like the one of the biggest messes for our country, seemingly ushering in a quasi-dictatorship and bankruptcy, but we have experienced other major disasters in the past, and more personal ones:  The spouse who admitted to an affair (or didn’t, and you found out), the bank failure and subsequent foreclosure on your house, the company which folded two years before your retirement, and the doctor who told you your child would not be getting better.  These are disasters we have known.  And we thought the sky was falling then, too.

And while we quivered and cried and prayed, our friends (and strangers) offered us platitudes:

·         When you have lemons, make lemonade.

·         The sky isn’t falling; Chicken Little lied.

·         This is probably for the best.

·         If you need anything, just ask me.

·         You’re better off without her; or He’s in a better place.

·         You need to get on with your life.

·         Shit happens, and

·         Never say it can’t get worse

There are tons more, and relative to this seeming disaster for our country today, who knows, maybe we’ll hear some new platitudes.  But the platitudes won’t solve anything, and we won’t feel any better.  It’ll still seem like the sky is falling.  And the platitudes don’t answer the question we face:  What do I do when the sky is falling?

Answers like “Don’t worry, life will go on” don’t provide direction.  We want to do something when disaster strikes, to make it better for ourselves --- and if we are living in the mind of Christ, to make it better for our neighbor.  And that’s where, I believe, that wanting-to-do-something question gets answered:  we should seek to do something for our neighbor.  When disaster strikes, people will be hurt, (and not just ME).  Putting on the mind of Christ, living in His beatitude, is loving our neighbor.  Find something to do to help; find the hurting and DO something, for them ---- really do something, not just write a check.  Get out and do something.

But, you might ask, what about me?  What about my hurt feelings, my pains?  Platitudes people say to me don’t help my pains.  That’s true.  Words don’t help, actions do.  And I pray that those I can’t help have others who do --- I pray you get help.  But if no one comes, then I think it’s crucial to look at those who are asking us questions.  They MAY be looking to help us, but whether they do or not depends on our answer to their questions.

Right now you will be hearing lots of politicians asking:  “Will you support me?”  With our personal disasters, some of us heard: “Do you still love me?”  And in the past sometimes our family or friends said: “Do you have the courage to do the right thing?”  Those are most critical questions being asked of us, and how we answer them may determine whether our pains will end and healing begin.  They are questions to be prayed over.  But I think there is a more important question being asked, when the sky is falling, and when it seems our prayers are NOT being answered.  It is a question being asked of us by God:

“Do you trust Me?” 

In God we trust.  My Jesus, I trust in You.  These are phrases that roll off the tongue just like platitudes, but the question which IS being asked of us by our God when the sky really is falling is almost always: “Do you trust Me?” 

Disasters are disasters in our eyes, but we don’t see with the eyes of God.  We see the now; He sees the future.  Do we trust that He always acts out of love for us?  Do we trust what He sees?   

And God saw that it was good.   (Gen 1:25)