Perspective

Psalm 46 (NLT)

God is our refuge and strength,
always ready to help in times of trouble.
² So we will not fear when earthquakes come
and the mountains crumble into the sea.
³ Let the oceans roar and foam.
Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!
Interlude

⁴ A river brings joy to the city of our God,
the sacred home of the Most High.
⁵ God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed.
From the very break of day, God will protect it.
⁶ The nations are in chaos,
and their kingdoms crumble!
God’s voice thunders,
and the earth melts!
⁷ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;
the God of Israel^[b] is our fortress.
Interlude

⁸ Come, see the glorious works of the Lord:
See how he brings destruction upon the world.
⁹ He causes wars to end throughout the earth.
He breaks the bow and snaps the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.

¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.”

¹¹ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;
the God of Israel is our fortress.

Let's just say this week here could be a study on this Psalm, especially when considering the first three verses. with an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale yesterday and Hurricane Irene predicted to be in the area this weekend.

It's interesting to me the way God works. earlier this week I would have told you I was excited but still slightly terrified about school starting up. Things just felt like they were taking forever to fall into place, I sometimes feel like I have jumped into something way over my head, I don't feel like I belong here etc. Then God "shakes my world" (literally), threatens to "blow me away" and reminds me that he is the one in control, he is watching over me, he is my refuge and strength. If he can literally shake my world and control huge storms like Irene, I know he can control what goes on in my education. In fact, he is the reason I am here, at this school, preparing to get to know a whole new group of people and study hard.

So yes, I survived the earthquake unharmed, nothing in my apartment broke, though a few things had to get put back where they belong. I guess I finally got to practice the skills taught to me during earthquake drills (yes, I believe we had 2 of them when I was in school...the joys of growing up on the west coast, but not near the fault line). That's right, I was lying on my floor filling out paperwork for student loan deferment when I felt a slight tremor, then it started to get worse, so I crawled under my table and curled up with my hands over my neck. Would I have been okay with out doing that, yep, but as you feel the shaking continue to get stronger you just don't know when it will stop, and what little training you got just kind of kicks in :P. And as you sit under there you hope and pray it doesn't get too much worse because soon things could really start falling. The irony of the fact that I lived in Vancouver for 4 years where everyone is waiting for "the big one" and felt nothing, yet less than a month after moving to VA we get a 5.8 earthquake stuck me as funny. When it stopped shaking, I finished my paperwork (had to control some adrenal response there) and called my parents via skype (I had to have someone to share it with!)

Then last night as I lay in bed, it was funny to me because as I looked around what seemed so solid the night before just seemed a little flimsier to me with the knowledge that just a few hours ago it had been shaking. At the same time, it didn't bother me, because I had been reminded that my security was not within those walls, or my education, or anything like that, it was in God.

So my apologies to those on the east coast if God decided that an earthquake and hurricane are what it takes to remind me of these truths!