Wake Up Call


I jolted awake. Then I kept jolting. Trying to wrap my tired mind around what was happening, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t me that was shaking, it was everything around me. I could hear my bed, dresser, wardrobe, and various pottery pieces around my house bouncing along with the actual building itself.

Earthquake.

I realized what was happening fairly quickly for someone who had just been startled awake and for someone who had never experienced an earthquake before. Thoughts tumbled into my head more quickly than I could process them.

Is the building going to fall down?
Is my computer okay?
Should I lay in a ditch?
No.
Maybe act bigger than the earthquake.
No. Stupid.
Should I stand in the doorway?
No, there’s three floors above me, a doorway won’t help.
When will it stop?
Should I log into facebook? This would make a good status.

Finally, the shaking stopped. The apartment quieted down. Nearly hyperventilating, I leaned over and yanked my computer out from under my bed. Funnily enough, one of my last thoughts before bed had been to not store my computer under my bed. Then I thought, well, if my bed collapses, I have bigger problems. I had bigger problems all of a sudden.

After my computer was securely in the middle of floor, I laid back, trying to calm my heart. I started to process what happened and prepare myself for an aftershock.

When it came, I could hear it start at the bottom floors and work its way up to me, like a train heading though my building straight at me. I buried my head, probably looking quite like this:



and started repeating the only thing that came to mind:

“God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in times of trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way,
And the mountains fall into the sea”

I’m so thankful that a passage like Psalm 46 even exists in Scripture. Throughout the next few hours, between 3:30 and 5:00 am, I was awake and feeling aftershocks again and again. During these rather tumultuous hours of listening to my building rumble and feel everything around me shake, I was reminded that even if everything around me is shaking, God remains a steadfast refuge and provides strength in my weakness.

In other news, nothing in my house was broken. My peanut butter fell of my pantry shelf, but that was the worst of the damage. Also, I realized during this 5.8 earthquake that I need to learn better survival skills, seeing as how I can’t act on the right skill for a tornado, bear attack, and earthquake.

I am, though, starting to wonder if my life has always been this eventful, or if it’s changed so I have things to put in my blog.

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