Feeling Earth

I found myself going through the Humans of New York page this morning, reading several Syrian refugee stories, reminding myself that I ought to avoid the usual posts on the city fiesta and the popular love team hundreds of thousands (if not millions) have gotten crazy over. Eventually, I started to break into tears when I realized how many the refugees were and how far I am from actually seeing them in person. There they are, thousands of miles away from me, each with a distinct and complicated story about their loss and journey, and here I am, snuggled in bed with my pillows and blankets in double portions, reading it over social media with the immediate choice whether or not to click on the like button to virtually send my sympathy. I felt terrible. It has been 12 hours since the time I read their experiences but I am still haunted by the sheer agony seeping in from their stories of grief. I picked up my Bible and thumbed through the pages and went to Luke 21 – when Jesus explained to his disciples the signs of the end of times.

I wasn’t exactly surprised by what has been happening all over the world. Typhoons, earthquakes, economic crises, and wars. They weren’t foreign to me at all, having lived in the ring of fire for the whole of my life. Although I had anticipated them, I also wasn’t exactly prepared for them. For such ugliness. For such grief. And instead of people calling out to God, more and more of them are blaspheming Him, blaming Him, or chucking out the entire idea of Him, even though some of them are being very polite about it. It was actually worse than what I have pictured.

When I was a lot younger, I never really expected having to run through certain arguments over the Bible I haven’t thought of before. Or if there were thoughts I have thought about, I have never really bothered to actually acknowledge them as worthy to be stressed over. But, I soon started to realize, in comparison to our assumptions, people actually have much deeper issues about God, which roots down from their individual experiences on spirituality, traditions, and religion. Some accept the gospel like a sponge, but some just aren’t like that. That’s reality. But why are we going to stop witnessing to these people just because they demand more reason?

One night, I found myself talking with a friend about the Bible and the gospel. It turns out smart people have a way of running an argument. We weren’t exactly arguing, but he did have questions about the Bible and its validity, which although I had anticipated, I wasn’t exactly perfectly in knowledge of. I mean, I’m not the smartest Christian out there (not that it’s a shock to any of you) and I do not understand every interpretation of the Scripture (surprise, surprise), nor do I know all the facts about the discovery of the manuscripts of the gospels and epistles, so I could not flaunt the vast knowledge of the logic behind the Bible that I do not really have. But, I did remember the Lord sending Moses and Jeremiah who were slow in speech and of filthy lips, and they didn’t have to do anything but to be of good faith and go.

Jesus Christ has reminded us in Luke 21 that these things are a part of the signs of the end of times. We could be brought to kings or governors (or, perhaps the smartest/most influential people we will ever meet in our life), and they will question our belief. Criticize it. Ridicule it. Discredit it. That will happen, if it hasn’t, yet. They will give us a rundown of all the logical reasons why we should abandon our belief, but Jesus Christ reminded us to be firm, saying, “…make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.” (Luke 21:14-15, NIV) Now, I could not really picture how amazing that sounds like, but if He talks about wisdom that not even the person against it could contradict or resist, that is one promise I’d gladly cling on to. That is perfect wisdom.

It’s so wonderful how God could use His power on regular people like us to proclaim His good news to the world, or how He could crush every seemingly perfect human logic by His wisdom. I wrote a separate post about it here a few years back.

“By standing firm you will gain life.”

Luke 21:19, NIV

Above all else, he only needs us to be still.

Too often we see people negating God and His kingdom in skepticism because of what is happening to the world. Too often we hear the same questions, “Why does a loving God allow this to happen?” “Is there redemption for us at all?” “Why care about what’s after death when we only have one life to live? YOLO, right?” Is this not the time to step up and be bold for the Lord that we serve? Is this not the time to boast about God’s love instead of tucking it in our prayer closet? Is this not the time to stop being kept to ourselves in church meeting the same set of faces every Sunday? Do we not realize that the more we keep ourselves all comfortable in our barracks with a war outside, the more people would see in us, only streaks of hypocrisy?

The world is weeping for Someone they do not know. The world is grasping for something they have not yet felt. The world is seeing its own destruction and is not sure why. Is it not too selfish to hog the joy that they do not have yet? Is it not too hypocritical to keep the love we said was eternal and free? Do we even feel the earth at all?