I was listening to Jimmy Buffet's Volcano earlier as I was driving, and I was thinking, "Wow, this kinda feels like life right now. The grounds are shaking, the waters are churning, smoke's starting to rise ... and I know that one of these days the 'volcano' is gonna blow. And when it does, I don't know how I'll handle it."
I can't explain yet what the "volcano" is, but maybe someday.
[And actually, for me, it's more like a "tsunami" - one of those things that come out of nowhere, that hit unexpectedly, that crash over you and wash you off your feet, along with others around you (who you can't talk to about it yet, which makes it even harder ... or maybe easier ... I'm not sure which). And you're just floating around helplessly in the churning waters with all the other people and things that got caught up in it too, unable to make it all stop or to direct anything about it. Holding your breath every time the phone rings, thinking this might be "it." No control over how it all goes or where it all goes or how it all ends.
And all you can do is wait until someday when the waves stop and the debris settles. And then you'll be able to get your feet under you, to see the damage that was done, to take inventory of what happened and how it affected everything. And only then will you be able to maybe come up with a plan for how to start digging yourself out of it, for how to live with the "new normal."
But until then, all you can do is ride the waves and let whatever's gonna happen happen.
(I never much liked the water!)]
Anyway, it made me smile (in a way) to realize that it's okay to not know what we're "supposed to do" when the volcano blows. (Do any of us really know ahead of time how we'll handle this kind of thing?)
We're not necessarily supposed to know how everything's gonna work out or how we're gonna handle it or how to fix it.
But that's okay ... because we've got a God who does know how everything will work out, who already knows what's coming and how He's gonna help us get through it and how He's gonna make something good out of it.
And I guess that's a whole lot better than me stressing ahead of time about how I'm gonna handle it when the volcano blows!
2 Corinthians 4:8-9: "We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
Psalm 46:1-3: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging."
Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."
