Are You Ready?

Yesterday our house shook twice with a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered just a few hours away in central Virginia.  As the walls buzzed and everything shook, I first thought it was nothing more than Life Flight hovering overhead as they sometimes do.  When it began again, I was afraid that something was exploding in the basement.

Soon my husband called and told me the truth - that there really was a major earthquake causing our entire town to shake.   Having grown up in the Mid-Atlantic region and now living in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, that never occurred to me.  We have storms ....

thunderstorms.

hail storms.

hurricanes.

the occasional snowstorm.

doozy ice storms.

even tornadoes sometimes.

But earthquakes?  Never.  Never felt one.   Never even heard of one happening here.  It didn't take long for the earthquake to be the talk of FB in our area.  Everybody was talking about it, and nobody had recognized it for what it was.  Everybody else also thought that their washing machine was unbalanced, an airplane was too low, or that a large truck was nearby - but nobody recognized the quake for what it was.

Why?

We weren't expecting it.  We don't experience them.  We don't have them.  Go head, West Coast, make fun of us:  it's okay.  I'm sure we deserve it.  We're that innocent because we are uninformed and unexperienced.  We weren't watching for an earthquake, we didn't expect one, so we didn't know it when it came.

Then I saw a comment on FB that made me think.  A friend said, "I went outside and looked at the sky because I thought that maybe Jesus was coming back."

He didn't come the other day during the quake, but one of these days He will.  Will we recognize Him? Do we know Him?  Are we expecting Him?  Are we prepared and ready to take action when He returns?

The entire eastern seaboard, it seems, is currently gearing up for Irene.  Everyone's getting ready.  They know how to prepare and they're doing it.  They are hurricane experts and they're taking action.

Some of us are Jesus experts.  We may not have all the answers, but we know how to get ready.  Are we doing it?  Are we sharing our knowledge and helping others get ready, too?

If we know Jesus now; if we read our Bibles and become acquainted with God and His character; if we spend time in prayer and time listening in return; if we strengthen ourselves with service and friendships with other believers; and most importantly, if we do the soul-searching required to recognize that we are all sinners in need of Jesus' saving grace, ....

then we will recognize Him when He comes back.  We will know what's happening.  We will be the informed ones, the ones in the know, the ones who are no longer confused.  We'll have a direct line to the Source.

It's all in what - and Who - you know.