Ordinary days, aftershocks, and the Rapture

Another earthquake post — the one I promised.

In an earlier post, I had mentioned that the Nepal earthquake of April 2015 did not have such a great impact on me than the aftershocks that followed it. Yes, I still think so.

The big one came and went; it was just a memory after five minutes. But hundreds of aftershocks followed it; and they were not just memories. Knowing that they had come today, yesterday, and the day before that; and knowing that they would probably continue on for a whole year made them more than just memories.

It wouldn’t be exactly true to say that aftershocks became a part of life. But it came close.

Sometimes one would come when I was studying at my desk, helping my brother with his schoolwork, or practicing the keyboard. Just a quick shudder, a leap in my pulse — and I would be awed to think that I had not been expecting it. Then another would follow the next day when I was cooking dinner. The water inside the water-filter would tremble again.

Sometimes, they were like the first one; our house would rock and tilt and lurch as if it were a village local bus, crossing the bumpy riverbed. Once, it was more like a jump. But most of the the time, the aftershocks would gently nudge our house — north to south.

You know, our brains are wired in a particular way: it expects the earth keep still. It’s as if our little understandings are saying subconsciously, “Everything can change, but the earth will remain the same.” But that’s not true. The earth can turn to liquid in a split second; and when it does, our brain is a little confused, having its theory disproven.

Once I woke up around 3 a.m. The mattress was sliding north and south, and I was sliding with it. I think it was a being-rocked-in-a-crib-like feeling. I was sleeping with my sisters, and they were woken up by the aftershock, too. We tried to rate the aftershock, amused to think that we had become “experienced” seismologists. We checked the news that morning; and, lo and behold, we had guessed right.

The last time a significant one came (5+ on the Richter scale), I was reading Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray. It was on a Saturday afternoon, and I was flopped on my brother’s bed, highlighting every other sentence in my ebook. When the windows began to clatter and everything jolted, my heart beat sped up. I was about to get up, but it stopped.

I resumed my reading . . . my mind wandered. The rapture — it will be like this.

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound . . . and we shall be changed . . .  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God . . . Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (from 1 Cor. 15, 1 Thess. 4)

I know it will be at a time when I am not expecting it. He has said to us that He will come “at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:40). But I can be ready.

The rapture — perhaps, today might be the day. Are you ready? Are you saved? Is your lamp burning?

Sometime some ordinary day will come,
A busy day like this—filled to the brim
With ordinary tasks—perhaps so full
That we have little thought or care for Him.

And there will be no hint from silent skies,
No sign, no clash of cymbals, roll of drums;
And yet that ordinary day will be
The very day in which our Lord will come.
— Anonymous

What's the purpose

What does that mean? What is your life purpose?

Purpose. It’s a strange word. If you keep staring at it long enough, the spelling starts looking odd. To me, at least.

Purpose. Purpose. Purpose. Saying that seems so strange.

But that’s beside the point. . . .

Purpose started circling my head today (and it’s not unusual), so I’ve started writing in order to share it with you.

You see, I finished my TEEX Cyber Security 101 course today (I need to write a course review soon). Immediately, I started planning for my next course. I am pretty excited because I have just 2 courses and one test remaining to finish up before I transfer to my target college.

So, anyhow. I looked at the calendar. And I began to put things in: travel, coaching call, travel, church programs, travel, church programs, travel. . .

All of a sudden, my spirit sighed within me, “I don’t want to do Microbiology. At all.” I don’t know how that happened, but right away, my heart decided that I didn’t want to do anything.

But. “I have to do something!” I thought. “What am I doing now, anyway?” College. A BS in Elementary Education.

I frowned. “I don’t think I want to do that for the rest of my life.” But I have to do something. But what? “I wonder what made me choose that degree, anyhow.” Then and there, I became so tired of it all; I could have sulked.

My stupid mind cleared up only after I got a drink of water. . .

Purpose.

I’d forgotten the purpose for which I was doing all these things. The things didn’t so matter in and of themselves, but they were leading me to the purpose.

And what was my purpose? I think I must have bouts of amnesia or something. . .

My purpose is to serve God. He has given me a passion and a burden for children, remember? “Oh, yes. . . vaguely.”

Mhmm. But service isn’t the true purpose. There is a greater purpose. “Oh?”

Yup. He loved me. He bought me from the cruel master. He bought me with His own blood. He bought me so that I could be free from the cruel master. He bought me for Himself. Now I am His. “Oh. . . it seems to come back to me now. A little bit. . . ”

Good. Listen, I am His now. He is my master. I don’t have to serve the cruel one anymore. Jesus is my Master now, and will I not love Him? “Oh, yes! Of course!”

Truly. And if I love Him, will I not obey Him? “Sure! He has said that if I love Him, then I am to keep His commandments.”

Then, what is His commandment? “Well. . . there are lots. . . like in Ephesians 4 and 5 and 6 and Colossians. . . ”

No, stop. I didn’t mean that. I did, but in a different way. . . You see, keeping those commandmentsdoes show my love for Him, but that’s not what He really saved me for. Don’t you remember? “Oh, yes! I do — now! He called me into Himself. It was so that I can have fellowship with Him.”

And I begin to smile all at once. . . and the whole world seems different.

Purpose. .  .

Life has purpose now it never had before.
There is meaning to each day and even more;
For a joy and peace I can’t explain is mine,
Since I found new life in Christ, my Lord divine.

Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian;
Oh, it is wonderful to be God’s child!
Oh, it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven;
Oh it is wonderful to be redeemed, justified, forever reconciled!

— John W. Peterson

Has life been hectic? Your schedule packed?

Life is busy. That is good. But sometimes I have so many things to do, I hardly know what to do first. Usually, I end up making a list and set about doing all those things.

Then, suddenly, I find myself so busy doing things that I forget to just live (allusion to Pollyanna). I am so busy — “serving the Lord” as we all like to put it — planning out the children’s Bible lessons for next week, printing out coloring pages for another person’s class, translating lessons for still another person’s class, organizing for the annual children’s program coming up soon, working out music specials for the upcoming Bible Conference, calling up people to work this all out. . . then my own schedule: completing the course work for school, music practice, reading books, keeping up with friends, printing out DIY bag tutorials for one friend, looking up crochet videos for another, microwavable gingerbread cookies for my mother, blogging (which often gets set aside) and on and on . . .

I don’t have much time left over . . . And what time I have left over, I tend to use up for myself, sometimes foolishly, wastefully.

And I get selfish. I begin thinking that nothing else matters as much as this schedule I have to accomplish or that nothing else is so important as completing the items in my to-do list.

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“Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). When I forget to stand still, I forget to marvel. I forget to wonder. I forget to think right.

Being still. When was the last time you were still? We are like crazy little termites hurrying about as if the sky would fall if we didn’t keep ourselves occupied. Being still is perhaps the last thing we would think of if someone asked us what we’d like to do.

But simply getting up from my little corner and staring at the open sky does wonders. It just puts things in perspective. My little corner is not the whole world. There are other people besides me. And when I do stop to think, my mind slowly begins to realize once more how little I am. How insignificant. How tiny. I’m in this little corner. This little city. In this little country. There are so many other countries. Thousands of cities. Millions of people. Billions of people.

Look up at the sky today. God made it immeasurable for a purpose: to let you and me see how little we are. How insignificant. God doesn’t need me. Nor does He need you.

Yet He loved me. He loved you.

Your to-do list? Your schedule?

You can smile now.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Ps. 8:3-4)

A quotation from Amy Carmichael

Being single-hearted?

That is very hard sometimes. Or so I am finding it.

Wake up, devotions, kitchen work, guests, house work, school, kitchen work, music, kitchen work, school with familyandmusicandchurchandrelationships squashed in somewhere amongst them. . . At last the heart in the grist mill begins to wonder if the whirl will ever end, if there will ever be a peaceful hour again . . .

The daily duties can become a grind and life can seem lifeless IF you don’t abide in the Giver of Life.

For sure, there are countless things in life that try to tear the life apart, but the patience that will look to the Life will survive. Patience isn’t doing anything. It is just abiding, staying, waiting. I like to remember that word in 2 Peter 1:16 — it means to simply stay under and remain under whatever is pressing from above. God has not commanded me to lift the weight that is over me; but He has commanded me to be patient as long as I am under it. And He will be with you, as He has been with me — even under the trials! And with Him, all is joy and all is peace.

“Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is.”

He has provided the way of peace! Praise Him!