Oh, Lord, Our Lord..

How Excellent Is Thy Name, In All The Earth!

Today, Japan was rocked by an earthquake measuring 8.8 or 8.9 on the Richter scale. This in turn triggered a Tsunami that slammed Japan's Eastern coast and may hit Hawaii and California. The middle East is going through growing pains with protests successfully toppling regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, and ferment prewing in Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen -- that I can think of. The Dalai Lama is about to relinquish responsibilities as the head of Tibet's exiled government -- oh, and China and Iran are simply cutting off access to the internet as ways to repress uprisings --

Yet in the midst of all the turmoil and upheaval in the world, I still see fit to say, Oh Lord, Our Lord, How Excellent is Thy Name in ALL the Earth! Why? We have to remember that God does not CAUSE natural disasters; God does not CAUSE oppressive dictators; God does not CAUSE distress and discord. While I do believe in a God who controls every aspect of His creation, I also believe that God allows for natural adjustments.

I'm not saying there's anything that needed to be adjusted with the people of Japan! No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that God is not a good luck charm, God is not magic, God does not generally operate in a way that is outside of or inconsistent with God's natural laws (which are the laws of nature). The earth is not a perfect globe, but rather a bunch of big plates that move together. Sometimes those plates don't fit together perfectly, and there will be a strain, or a break. That break causes shaking, or quaking as it happens. The faults that we see after the earthquakes are not the result of them, but actually the CAUSE of them.

So there was a big tear under the sea and it hit Japan. Things happen -- again, I'm not finding any fault, but I am saying that earthquakes and tsunamis represent another opportunity for we humans to replenish, subdue, and have dominion over the earth, rather than to deplete, overrun, and be at the effect of the Earth. We have an opportunity to live in harmony with nature and to learn from the Earth.

In so doing, I believe, we also have the opportunity to live in harmony with and learn from Oh, Lord, Our Lord, whose Name is Excellent in all the Earth.