Three years ago today, the family wrapped up a blessed vacation in Maui. Wonderful in so many ways. Susanna and I were “left behind” at the Maui Airport as the higher priority stand-by passengers filled up all the available seats on the first of two returning flights of the day. The stress of missing the last flight of the day became insignificant as we listened to the announcement of a pending tsunami coming from Japan, and that cooperation was requested in getting all the passengers boarded as quickly as possible. Very eerie. I believe we took the last two seats, and it wasn’t until we returned to California that the magnitude of the tsunami in Japan was realized in the images and videos that streamed on the internet and on television.

I remember it hitting me on all levels, spiritual to visceral. The images were difficult to take in and there was the sense that the end is very near. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 seemed more remote as the images and footage of the devastation were rarer.  But in Japan, everything seemed so recognizable, towns like ours, better than ours, flushed out into the ocean as the footage rolled. What took centuries to build and had been neatly maintained turned into splinters and debris field with surging, unrelenting waves. Wood, hay, and stubble. Then the attention focused on Fukushima. Suddenly, Japan’s problem became China’s, and Korea’s, and Russia’s, and Taiwan’s and the world’s. But it’s always been that way. Nothing happens in isolation. For good or ill.

And in those days, just as when 9-11 hit in 2001, our hearts turned to God, and we acknowledged our mortality and the destructibility of all that we once considered indestructible. But now, we have seen too much. Mass shootings one following another on the news. One picture of a missing teenager after another on Facebook. Domestic violence filled with unspeakable and unimaginable horrors. Brutality of governments against their own people. It’s hard not to despair. It’s hard not to lose heart. It’s hard not to become indifferent, numbed, calloused. What can we do that would make a difference anyway?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

“Apart from Me,” the Lord Jesus said, “you can do nothing.” (John 15:5b) And looking at the lives of all the people recorded in the Bible, those that seemed to have made the greatest impact were the ones who could do nothing in themselves. That should be our encouragement. In the simplest way, they obeyed God as He commanded. Moreover, some did so with initial reluctance and protestation and fear and trepidation, and it took encouragement and empowering on the part of Almighty God for them to accept the charge. That should be our encouragement. God did not use people who in their own strength act out of their own initiative. Look at Moses in his “prime.” And when Moses thought he was at the end of his life (Psalm 90:10), he tried hard to prove to God how unworthy he was for the task. But what mighty things God did through him when Moses took every step in simple obedience and intimate fellowship with God. Did he not abide with God and God with him?  And in his singular act of going beyond God’s command, he dishonored God and it prevented Moses from entering the Promised Land. Jonah in Nineveh. He did not want to go warn the people of Nineveh when God commanded him. He headed for the opposite direction. And in the belly of the fish, Jonah recognized God’s resurrection power to bring him out of the death waters and that he had a vow to pay. In His great mercy, God re-issued the command and Jonah faithfully announced the proclamation of the destruction to come. “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Would we think this gospel to be “too negative,” and “too simple?” It was an eight-word message. Truly the word of God is spirit and is life. God caused the entire wicked city, from the king on down to fast and to repent in sackcloth and ashes. And as they repented, God relented. Ananias of Damascus. Ananias was faithful to obey God’s command to go to Saul of Tarsus and speak the words God put in his mouth. (Acts 9) With his simple, “Here I am, Lord,” the Lord directed him to go via the street called Straight to the house of Judas. After a request for clarification of Saul’s identity, Ananias did just that, conveying not only the message but the love of God (“Brother” Saul, as Bro. Ted pointed out).

“He who abides in Me and I in him shall bear much fruit.” (John 15:5a) “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit.” (John 15:8) The nation of Israel marched out of the bondage of Egypt. The 120,000 souls of Nineveh were saved. A command was given to one Saul of Tarsus that opened his eyes to the Body of Christ. No obedience is too great or too small. In all aspects of our lives, God is working. Let us not resist the Holy Spirit. Let us relent. We don’t have to “do something for God.” That would not do. Only the Son can do the Father’s will.  It is just our abiding in the Son, responding with a “Here I am, Lord,” that anything that would please the Father can be accomplished. Apart from the Son, there is nothing. In the Son, powerless and good-as-dead human beings may glorify God the Father. Amazing.