joyindestructible

Calamity is feared, hated, played into, played down, and ignored; but no matter how we feel about calamity or respond to the possibility of it, calamity is outside human control. Neither science nor philosophy can deter the crushing, life-changing effect of calamity when it decides to strike. Even the righteous are subject to calamity and even those who are wise enough to predict it are seldom able to fully avoid it. The power of personal choice in obedience to God, can maintain personal integrity but our good choices have no power to control the lack of integrity, in the world around us. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, in order to become their own gods and thereby direct their destiny, the integrity of God’s Creation was destroyed. Calamity is the normal state for those who attempt to wrest God’s power from Him and in loving grace, God allows calamity for the purpose of turning His children back to Him, so that He may bless them and strengthen them with an attitude of joy; enabling them with the spiritual strength needed to survive in a world set on destruction.

Calamity is the active force of death and death is the final limit God places on human beings, living as gods and attempting to control what human beings will never be able to control. By wresting control of their life and choosing for themselves between good and evil, Adam and Eve lost eternal life and traded it in for temporary life. The same kind of life all must live out, beneath the shadow of certain death. No matter what technology people create, or whatever they rise up to build, all things put together by human hands, will someday come apart.

It is easy to observe calamity in another’s life and judge them. None of us want to believe the same could happen to us; but it can and it will. Because of judgment, people suffer personal calamity in silence. They put on a brave face and deny the truth of their broken-ness until, the shattering can’t be hidden any longer. Then calamity rises as a spectacle and people fear then, pray. Some turn back to God and find healing but most turn to denial and seek strength in human pride; not knowing that by doing so they make themselves a prey for an insidious form of calamity that destroys from the inside out. Human beings apart from God can’t endure the sad-happenstance that is normal in this mortal world; and those who persist in the illusions of human god-hood will meet death and be consumed by the final fate that none can avoid.

Though calamity in this world can’t be avoided, it can be endured and by hope in Jesus, victory over certain disaster can be won. When calamity comes, we will either respond by giving up or reaching for God. These are the only two choices left for those who by experiencing calamity fully understand their weakness and inability to control outer circumstances. Those who give up will die in torment, having known only temporary life in a world ruled by certain doom. Those who reach for Jesus are restored to God, in a loving-parent-child-relationship that internally, restores the right order and surrenders control to its rightful owner, Father God. The menace of temporary life begins to fade when eternal life is revealed and those restored by it, receive joy; one of the spiritual fruits enjoyed by those who abide in Jesus, nourishes the believer’s spirit and soul. It produces inner strength and enables those who belong to Jesus to endure all calamities, in hope of enjoying life without death in the world to come.

Calamity equals loss and what is lost will always be missed. There is nothing more disastrous than losing those we love to calamity, by the hand of death in all its forms, even living death. There is no loss more devastating than to raise an adored child and then see them fall victim to calamity and be destroyed. These experiences of death leave us forever changed but in Jesus, we will not be defeated. Like Brother Job, all we have lost will be restored in the future and we will be blessed to receive even greater blessings. Cups now empty will overflow in a new world characterized by joy. That quality of joy which is produced by faithful endurance and rewarded by hope fulfilled.

Ref: The Book of Job