OMNIPOTENT

At 6:30 am, I woke up to all my windows sounding like they were being bashed in. I thought I was being robbed. I grabbed Grey, my phone, and buried myself under the covers. It was around this time I realized that everything was shaking, not just the windows. That was when it dawned on me it was an earthquake. Grey was shaking pretty intensely. For a few minutes the shaking continued. Just like something out of a movie. I was scared and frightened. And then it was over. Minus a proliferation of Earthquake-themed Facebook statuses, life went on just like it hadn't happened. Certainly the 4.4 Earthquake was trending on social media and it was the top story on the news reels. But there was no difference in the morning traffic, no new color of the sky, no noticeable difference to anyone's behavior that last night they had experienced a very real, frightening display of the natural earth's scariest power.

It got me thinking about God. Sometimes when I am looking for direction, or when I am waiting on an answer to prayer, I think it would be pretty cool if instead of letting me wait patiently, he'd just speak to me in a burning bush (or burning palm tree). He could choose to lead me with a cloud of fire I begin walking the wrong direction, or to heal a sick friend before my eyes. He could make the wool outside my door step dry, but dew on everything surrounding it, when I am doubting Him. He could ensure that a rock and slingshot is enough to kill a giant opposing me, instead of letting me fight the battle on my own. After all, these are all things He has done before! Sometimes its easy to look at these great biblical stories and think, why doesn't He speak to us like THAT?

And then, you experience an earthquake and you think, oh, He most certainly could. Perhaps I should instead be thankful that he doesn't. He moves and shakes us in a different way.
Instead of it being Earth-shattering enough to grab my attention in my cloudiness, it is gentle. It is a whisper. Its on me, to clear the cloudiness, to be alert. It is my responsibility to change my heart so that it's beating only for Him.
When the waves hit my feet on the beach, I think about the ocean and its vastness as a symbol of His love, His omnipresence and His omniscience. Now, I'll think of the tornado, of the earthquake as symbols of His incredible power that out of his love, He moves us and shakes us gently.