Shaking

At 3:20 am on Sunday, Steve and I woke up to a jolt. Our bed was shaking and the doors were rattling. Earthquake! I declared, sitting up in bed. I walked through the house, but detected no damage. Our main concern was a tidal wave, as we live about 2 blocks from the beach. When there is a tidal wave, a loudspeaker announces it and there is a loud siren. I know this because they do a drill on the first Wednesday of every month at 10:00 am. I didn't hear a siren or a loudspeaker telling me to run for my life, so we went back to sleep. 

I’ve lived through lots of earthquakes, so they don’t scare me too much. When I first moved to North Carolina, the thunderstorms scared me, but after experiencing many of them, they didn’t scare me either.

Life is full of surprises that are often frightening, trying or painful. Difficult changes require flexibility and optimism, but after we learn to face challenges in faith, we have a much greater tolerance for life’s hurdles. So that eventually we can say, like Paul, in Romans 5, “. . . we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

I’m still not hoping for another earthquake to wake me up, though!

Barbara