Today when I woke up I had no idea what the day would bring, following my usual routine I got my phone out and checked Facebook in bed, I quickly saw several people posting links about the earthquake and the destruction that it has brought. My heart was quickly very heavy for all the people of Japan and everyone who has been affected by the disaster. I then spent the rest of the morning looking at the BBC live coverage on the internet and seeing the utter chaos that was unfolding on the other side of the planet.
I then started thinking on what this meant in the bigger picture and my mind was drawn to the verse in Mark talking about when Jesus will return.
Mark 13v7-8: When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
This is quite scary as it does talk about the end of the world as we know it. Obviously I don't know when it will be, as he will return like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5v2). However what has happened in Japan, Egypt and Libya in the past few weeks is just a reminder that Jesus is coming back.
I really like that in that verse it says 'do not be alarmed' as I was definitely initially alarmed about these things but it is very comforting knowing that God knew I was going to be alarmed and tells me not to be. I am not scared for myself as I know I have been saved through what Jesus did on the cross and I know where I am going, but my heart aches for people who haven't been saved, who don't know Jesus and are going the wrong way.
Even with all this destruction and sadness that is going on in the world I was really comforted today (so much so I tweeted about it) by the evidence that people (in general) still deep down believe that there is something out there, as on twitter there was the hashtag of #prayforjapan which hundreds of thousands of people used, where I'm guessing that the vast majority would not call themselves Christians (or any other religion) yet when there is a disaster as catastrophic as this people do call on God to help, which I found to be really encouraging.
My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan and neighbouring countries through this disaster and I pray above all things that people would call on the name of Jesus to help.
David
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