| A MESSAGE IN THE QUAKE |
| Written for The
Monterey County Herald, in response
to the Northridge earthquake, on February 6, 1994 |
Nothing catapults us to our senses like a natural disaster. We citizens of the Central Coast may not have been directly affected by the recent quake in Southern California. Still, we are shaken by the images we have seen on television and in newspapers. We identify with the victims because we know that our area could be hit next. More sobering than the fear of annihilation, perhaps, is the realization that everything we own, everything we have lived for, could be reduced to rubbish in a few moments: our homes, our communities, our careers, our beliefs.
Yes, our beliefs.
Are there any people out there who still think that man is the master of his fate? Any globalists who want to unify our planet and save mankind from destruction? If so, then they certainly have their work cut out for them. One of the first things they are going to have to do---and I know this is going to sound facetious---is to make the Earth stop shaking. They will need to harness all the destructive forces that are plaguing civilized man and convert them into constructive energy. (Just think of how many boom boxes and video games could be powered by a 6.6 quake!) But let us suppose that man could master the forces outside himself: the typhoons, the fires, the floods, all the “caprices of nature” that threaten his existence. An even more formidable task would confront him: Could he master the nature inside himself?
Consider how many human lives in this country and around the world have been trashed by homicides, by diseases related to smoking and substance abuse, by accidents caused by drunk drivers, by fires that were deliberately set, by wars: in short, by tragedies that, in theory, could have been prevented. Compare these casualties to the relative handful of victims who perished in disasters that could not have been prevented. One might well conclude that human nature actually poses a greater threat to man than the violent, unreasoning nature that surrounds him.
And just suppose that the natural order were subject to man’s revision. To whose personal specifications should it conform, seeing that there are as many human wills as there are human beings?
Proverbs 25:28 tells us that “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls”. Just as a horse cannot harness itself, neither can a man repair the cracks in his own foundation. For all its power and splendor, a horse needs a human master to subdue and cultivate it. Not until it is brought under submission to man’s authority is its potential fulfilled, its beauty proclaimed, its greatness established. So, too, does man, for all his excellent endowments, need a Master to redefine him, to bring out his potential and remake him into the perfect and glorious creature he was meant to be.
So let man, by all means, rebuild the ruins of this latest quake in Northridge. Let us all work together and help one another during times of crisis. Let us hope that we can make our buildings and highways stronger and try, to the best of our abilities, to prepare ourselves for the next jolt.
But if there is any message to be gleaned from disasters of this magnitude, it may be this: that man is not the master of his fate. The Supreme Master has spoken. He has once again gotten our attention. In the end, it is He, not man, Who will have the last word.
And before man can know any peace and stability today, or entertain any real hope of tomorrow, he needs to submit to the authority of One more perfect and powerful than himself---One to Whom nature itself is in submission and Who, unlike the Earth, will never be moved.
Is anyone listening?