Disaster

The first building shown in this video is my building at work. I worked in this building till the end of February and then moved to a different office, same job. This is after the tornado ripped the front of the building off. Front lobby, front offices and front restrooms are gone. The factory part of the building is intact. Because I support this building through Supply Chain Management as a Procurement Agent (translated, I buy metals to build aircraft parts), I was asked for the near term to move back into my old office and work where I’m easily available, face to face until the recovery activity is done. My broken building. My other office is cleaner, nicer and the parking is better. Cafeteria is better.

My co-workers laughed at me moving back, (they also laughed at me stopping at the door of the building and changing my high heel sandals for Skecher casual shoes and my sunglasses for safety glasses) and were talking about my “temporary” desk.

I still have my permanent desk with the desktop computer and desk land line phone. Tangible, visible signs of power. Ethernet cable, power cords, phone lines.

My temporary desk has my company cell phone and my laptop. Wi-fi and cellular service. Completely cordless. No visible signs of the power source.

I’ve been accused of over-spiritualizing things, but as I sat at my laptop I kept thinking about what they said. And it strikes me that this mirrors my life.

My permanent home isn’t here, it’s in Heaven. In Heaven I will be able to see God. I will have tangible, visible evidence of my power source.

This is my temporary home. It’s a broken world and I’m doing my best to counteract the destruction in my life. I have a power source, the Holy Spirit, but I can’t see him. There is no tangible or visible evidence I’m plugged in. But it’s there. It works.

This is a reoccurring theme, as I talked about Heaven and the Holy Spirit on Easter, so I guess it’s kind of on my mind. More so in light of last week’s tornado.

I’ve always been fascinated by the book of Revelation. Ever since as a small child bored in church (because I was a in-church-every-time-the-doors-were-open kid) I read the book of Revelation and it was all about seals and horses. I’ve learned a lot since then, real horses, but the seals were the kind that seal parchment. Two things I’ve noticed are the seasons are so out of whack. Call it El Nino or global warming, but whatever it is, 94 degrees in April is odd for Kansas. We had a horribly cold winter 2010/2011 followed by a scorching dry summer into a mild fall, a mild winter and warmer than usual spring. The thought of summer scares me right now and I like hot.

The other thing is the increasing number of natural disasters. They are more frequent and more deadly than they used to be. I remember my senior year of high school, there weren’t hardly any natural disasters, very few that even made the news because they didn’t cause fatalities or billions of dollars in damage. I did a little (very little) research and compared 1986 to 2011, so if it’s not exact, I apologize, (I pulled it from a website that sounded official).

Tornadoes

1986 – 765
2011 – 1691

Earthquakes

1986 – 3
2011 – 26 and this includes the deadly Tsunami that hit Japan

Hurricanes

1986 – 4
2011 -13

I didn't look at cyclones, forest fires, droughts and floods, but they were all listed too.

I believe it’s so important to love people and share Jesus love with them. I' not a "sky is falling" person, and wether I think the end is near and Jesus is going to come back really soon or just believe that a tornado or even an earthquake, as we’ve had them in Kansas this spring could end our lives at any moment, I do believe we should be making the most of our time.