Today political pundits will tell us we
have become more suspicious and fearful since Al Qaeda’s attack on the twin
towers 12 years ago: TSA inspects shoes and underwear, while NSA monitors private emails and
phone calls. And on the global front, London Times diplomatic
editor Roger Boyes captures the mood: “The
direction in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran should keep us awake at
night.”
So, then, while the earthlings are
trying hard today not to be engulfed in dread and anxiety, let us take solace
in the fact that a day is coming when the Prince of Peace will establish His government,
put an end to war, and bring about everlasting peace (Is. 9:6-7).
And while the
peace of God is not yet cosmically realized, it is certainly personally available. “My peace
I give to you” (John 14:27). “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts” (Col.
3:15). The peace Jesus promised and Paul commanded is a settled state of
inner rest that nothing can disturb. “You will keep
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You” (Is. 26:3). “Let not your heart be troubled” today (Jn. 14:1).
Have you noticed that the media are no longer referring to Hurricane Sandy as “Frankenstorm?” That would trivialize a storm that portends to be the worst to hit the Mid-Atlantic in 200 years—and there is nothing cute or funny about Sandy!
Sandy’s winds, in excess of 80 mph, are expected to cause power outages for millions of Americans. Government offices in the Nation’s capitol are closed, as are schools. Wall Street is closed, along with NYC and New Jersey public transportation, including the cancelation of more than 9,000 flights. Adding bad to worse, a cold front moving in from the West is threatening to drop up to 2 feet of snow. The economic losses are expected to be $20 billion. Occurring just days before the presidential elections, no one is even trying to guess what affect it will have on voting turnout.
As I read this morning’s news articles about Sandy’s affects on all of the above, it occurred to me that no one is speaking of the spiritual affect. Will it cause people to pray? Will it cause people to reevaluate what is important in life? Could Sandy be a reminder that our fate is not determined by the outcome of a national election, but by our omniscient and omnipotent God?
Resilience is the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. It is a gift of God to help us cope with hard things in life. But it can also be an instrument of self-supremacy—the “I can do anything” attitude that was birthed in the Garden of Eden—“you shall be like God.”
From Genesis to Revelation, "Babylon" is used to denote the strength and resiliency of man—its first mention, the Tower of Babel. Ever since, men have built towers to display their strength. After the fall of the World Trade towers on 911, it seemed Americans were brought to their knees and humbled—churches were full of scared people. But within weeks, resilience returned. And national leaders said, “We will build a new tower!” Thus a new Word Trade tower (the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere) will be completed in 2013, reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet—referring to the year America declared its independence.
Isaiah describes Israel’s resilience after tragedy: “The people say in their proud, lofty hearts, ‘The bricks are fallen down, but come, let us hew stones and cut down trees and build for ourselves a tower’” (9:8–10). We American Christians must be especially leery of how the spirit of resilience affects us. We can forget that our trials are meant to make us more dependent on God. Because Paul understood this, he boasted in his weakness (1 Co. 12:19). But the resilient American spirit hates weakness, and says, “let us build a new tower.”
