Saturday, January 15, 2011

Earthquakes and Truth

Today is the birthday of my number four grandson. He is now eighteen years old and a very fine young man just like our three older grandsons. But his birthday always brings back the memory of the night he was born in California—the night I experienced my first and only earthquake. (I hope it stays only!) It was a big earthquake (As I recall it was a 5.3) but miraculously didn’t do any serious damage. No one was hurt. But the feelings I had that night will never be forgotten.

It is a very strange thing when something as solid and reliable as the earth you are standing on is no longer solid or reliable. The feeling that fills the pit of your stomach when you feel the earth pitch and roll when it has always been stable can’t even be put into words. But it is a perfect example of what it means to Live in Truth. When the earth is rumbling and tumbling the first thought in your head is, “The earth shouldn’t be moving!”  But the Truth is that the earth is moving. You could sit there in that terrified state claiming the earth shouldn’t be doing what it is doing, but that doesn’t help a thing. Instead of dealing with what should be happening, you need to deal with what is happening. That is Truth!

It is easy to see in the case of an earthquake, but with so many other things in life we let the “should be” or “shouldn’t be” things distract us from what is and when that happens we slip into the Pit of Illusion. Living life in the Pit is painful and often, as in the case of the earthquake, it is dangerous. Instead we need to face the facts, deal with the Truth of any situation, and live life to the fullest (and safest!) by living in the Realm of Truth.

1 comment:

  1. Did you hear about the earth quake that wasn't in Seattle? The Seahawks were playing a bowl game that could head them to the Superbowl and the fans- we call them the 12th man were so loud it registered on the Richter scale! They had a newspaper article about it that showed what happened on the field and the strength of the noise or movement!

    ReplyDelete