There are a lot of different natural disasters in our world.

Thanks to the invention of the camera phone, many are recorded as they happen. Mud slides, earthquakes, flash floods, hurricanes, tornados… Each one a terrifying sight to behold. The sheer strength and force of them are humbling.

When nature versus humans, it’s almost always nature who claims the victory. Leaving in its wake a path of destruction that forever changes the face of the world as we know it.

If you ever wonder about how awesome the power of God and His created universe are, go ahead and watch a few of the videos. Try to watch them without your jaw dropping in amazement and horror. I doubt you can.

The one that most amazes me is the Tsunami. Picture yourself on the beach, building sand castles and splashing in the water at the beautiful resort you chose for your vacation in Indonesia. Something strange begins to happen. The water, which always recedes before each new wave, continues to be drawn away from shore. Confused, you get up to search for the disappearing shoreline along with the other tourists out for a day at the beach. But the water continues to be drawn away. So far away that you begin to believe it may never come back again.

You try to imagine what the world will be like now that the tide has all but disappeared. As you look around, the beach chairs, umbrellas and blankets now seem oddly out of place . Overcome with confusion and a sense of grief for what seems lost, you walk in slow moving circles. Searching to see if the rest of the world is still intact. In the grip of this extreme low tide moment you cannot imagine that things will ever be like they are supposed to be again.

This is the moment we are living in as Christians. We are living in a low tide of faith and spiritual formation in this world.

In the grip of this extreme low tide moment you cannot imagine that things will ever be like they are supposed to be again.

Who knows for sure when the tide began to recede? Five years ago? Ten? Twenty? We have an entire generation of Christians who were raised up in a culture that lost respect for Christianity before they were even born.

We live in a society where the Word of God seems as out of place as a beach chair in the middle of the desert.

Will things ever be alright again?

In a Tsunami the mistake the victims made was to believe that the tide would never return. They stood on the beach looking out at the horizon with no expectations for what was to come.

Then, in an instant, they realized the water wasn’t just coming back…it was coming back with unimaginable power to swallow up as many buildings, cars, trees and people as it could reach before the earth shattering force within the wave was spent.

It was too late to make up for their error in judgment. Too late for them to be saved. You cannot stop the force of nature and you cannot outrun it.

Nor, can you outrun a move of God. Yes, we are in a low tide moment here in America and around the world.

What Christians are enduring in other nations is unspeakable.

Persecution of Christians has risen to the level of genocide in in The Middle East.

We can’t begin to compare with that level of hatred here in the United States.

Yet, we most certainly are living in the lowest tide of acceptance Christians have experienced in many generations.

But the tide will indeed return.

Our hope is not in society.

Our hope is not in defeating Isis.

Our hope is in God alone!

Watch another one of the online videos. This time, watch the force of the water as if it is the force of God Himself!  Tsunami

Watch how NOTHING can resist the power or the overwhelming presence of the waters as they wash over the land sweeping up everything in its path.

Imagine, with me, that we are watching God move across the planet reclaiming all that belongs to Him.

And when the force of the wave has been spent nothing will ever be the same again. Leaving in its wake – not destruction – but restoration.

Restoration that will forever change the face of the world as we know it.

Can I get an Amen?

In His love and service,

Sharon Bollum