After-Shock

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

UPDATE:

Well, I have found that with most traumatic situations in life, time, acceptance and adaptation to the change are key. Our ability to be flexible in an ever changing tide, to bend with the direction the harsh wind is blowing, like that mighty oak tree, insures us that this storm will not break us, but will cause our roots to grab hold to our foundation and strengthen us. Strengthening us not only through the current storm but for all those that are yet and most assuredly to come.

"Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer, from the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.  For You have been a shelter for me,  A strong tower from the enemy.  I will abide in Your tabernacle (tent) forever, I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.  For You, O God, have heard my vows..." Psalm 61:1-5

"In God is my salvation and my glory, The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God." Psalm 62:7

Each day will bring its own set of challenges but one thing I know...I know who holds my future and on Whose foundation I plant my feet. Christ Jesus, because, truly all other foundations are sinking sand...liquid foundations, moving targets...sink holes!

Can you just imaging what all those poor families must be going through mentally having bought and lived in a home that is now proving to have been on or waaaay too close to a Sink Hole! How horrifying and don't get me started on earth quakes!  I lived in California for several years and we all know the 2 things California is known for...#1 Beautiful Weather and #2 Earthquakes.

I was living in California in 1989 when the Big One hit the San Francisco/San Jose Area. The big quake that collapsed the double decker bridge in SF...truly a horrifying and catastrophic event. The earth shook with such violence that if you were walking, it literally threw you to the ground as if someone had just pushed you physically. I can remember walking to my car and that is exactly what happened, all of a sudden, as if someone came up behind me and just shoved me to the ground, down I went...I thought I had tripped but then all the car alarms began to sound and as I looked up I could see the black top rolling towards me and my son like a wave in the ocean. The cars all around us were rolling over the waves that the earth was making from beneath the surface.  Such a sight...it was the most intimidating, terrifying experience I had ever had.

But here's the point...the initial quake measured 7.1 Richter scale...but the torment, if you will, came for days and weeks after that...they're called "after-shocks." Scientists have studied and proved that there have been "after shocks" that were greater in size, intensity, damage and length of time and the initial quake did. After shocks are so damaging because, their what I like to call the enforcers...the deal closers...the door closers...the finishers...the finish the damages that were begun by the initial quake.  There were after shocks from the '89 quake that measured up to 6.8...those are huge!

I was in the mortgage business for over 8 years and when a mortgage agent couldn't get the loan closed, couldn't seem to either keep the customer on track and focused or couldn't get the deal to the closing table...they were criticized for not being able to "close the garage door." Sounds funny right, garage door...mortgage...oh never mind...If you start something, you must finish it is the basic philosophy here and really in every area of your life...you have to be able to complete what you begin. There are even business arrangements where they will bring in the "closer." This person will review the contracts on the table, cross the "T's"...dot the "I's" and so on and so forth...then once everything checks out, will address any concerns of the client and then will "Close The Deal."

After-shocks are the closers...they seem to be the ones to usher in the end of the process, but surviving this stage proves to be sometimes the most critical of all the survival stages. This stage can last for days, weeks, even many months.  The mental effect is you become "trigger happy" if you will, everything that shakes, shimmies or trembles even a bit, you think it's happening all over again...its mental torture at it's highest...When you still don't have all the answers, the road still seems so, so very long, the questions seem to out number the answers and all you want is to see that garage door go down, signaling the end and the completion of this phase.

I said that this journey would have it's ups and downs...Spiritually I'm great...but you know this, the battle is in the mind...Right now, mentally, I'm in the After-Shock phase...next week will bring more evaluations, more meds being added to the pile, new doctors, next phase of treatments beginning, etc...etc. The initial impact has been absorbed...now the deluge of further discovery and quest for additional answers are bearing down. Don't you see why I have to keep my resolve in my foundation so close...because everything all around me is liquid...movable, ever-changing, never the same, daily different...but the one true constant throughout all of this is my sweet Jesus who allows me, when the storm is raging inside this head of mine, to crawl up in His lap and snuggle close, so close I can hear His heart-beat drown out all the clatter and find safety, comfort, assurance, peace and joy in His arms.

Today's journey isn't filled with high "whoops" of glorious and clamorous shouting of praise...it's more of quiet contemplation of where we have to go and the sweet assurance that while in my humanity I may be anxious...in my Father's arms, I'm calm, safe, secure, knowing that He and He alone will absorb all the pounding, earth shattering, wave rolling effects from this after shock while I rest in the bosom of His protection.

Today, whatever life brings you, however great your After Shock may register on the Richter scale of your day, take safety in that Rock, in that Foundation, in your Father, knowing that He and only He controls the waves.  He and only He can calm that storm raging inside you today...Set Your Sails for calm waters ahead...He's waiting.