EARTHQUAKE…HERE?
At 4:37am Friday morning, a 5.2 Richter Scale registered earthquake hit the Midwest with the epicenter in Mount Carmel, Illinois. Though my own snoozing body didn’t wake up, when I arrived at school I heard stories of cabinets shaking, dishes rattling, and one of my friends who sleeps on a rollaway bed actually had his bed…roll a way…about 12 inches from the wall. After talking with my brother who lives in the far western suburbs of Chicago, his house was shaken too.
Sure enough, this minor shift in the earth’s crust will recall the historical legends that took place in 1811 when the New Madrid fault exploded causing the grandest earthquake in the history of the Continental United States. On that day, a series of earthquakes began that would make the 1906 quake in San Francisco looked like an autumn rain in comparison. The earthquake was felt for a range of up to 50,000 square miles, made the church bells ring in Boston, and even altered the flow of the Mississippi River. The 400 people living in New Madrid, Missouri got knocked out of their beds as folks riding on boats got tipped over like a tsunami. The good news is that the death toll was minimal because of the scarce population, but if and when it hits again, that stat won’t be duplicated.
Why does the earth quake? Well, it’s a sudden release of energy that creates seismic waves. These waves manifest themselves on the earth’s surface in the form of displaced or shaking ground. Though people commonly refer to California when thinking of them, about every 400 years a mega-disaster is due right here in suburban St. Louis.
Does Your Earth Quake? Are the problems of life, the seismic waves that hit all of us, too much to handle? I dunno. I am not really that old and I am not really that wise, but I have lived long enough to know that there are thousands and thousands of people living life in this area absolutely terrified to think about their future. For one reason or another, their life is on what I would call “shaky ground.” If you’re foundation is on sand, maybe it is time to find more of a rocky soil. If that’s case, can I suggest to you…Jesus. Why? Because none of us really know when the next quake is going to hit.
The Bible states in Matthew 7:24-27 that 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Please make sure your life is on solid ground and any kind of movement against you will not prevail.