The Japanese Meltdown

In the midst of the destruction that the Japanese are facing, there have been acts of heroism that have touched our hearts. However, I haven’t seen any as solemn and moving as the spectacle of the white-clad Japanese volunteers trooping back into the midst of the reactors where they face almost certain death, trying to contain the nuclear terror from spreading to their people.

From around the world, others have called in, written in, blogged in to express their profound admiration for these honorable modern-day warriors. We have watched this debacle in horror, crying in our hearts for the plight of the Japanese people, hoping perhaps that these diminutive but heroic forms, walking back into the unquenchable inferno, might provide an answer, even a partial answer. Or will their lives be tragically consumed in vain before this restless nuclear beast of our own creation?

Perhaps it takes a meltdown to remind us of our own personal meltdowns and the drama that is played out with almost daily reminders of our own failures, and their possible consequences. It also reminds us of our Savior Jesus Christ who also braved an unstoppable meltdown, taking upon Himself all the fallout that would have buried us eternally. We do not know what will be the outcome of the Japanese meltdowns and the brave people who are sacrificing their lives in hope of containing its deadly contents, but we do know what the One who died for us has accomplished:

• This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

Many will resent this analogy – that I am comparing the very real Japanese nuclear disaster with a fairy tale. However, I would urge you to consider the possibility that what Jesus accomplished is real – that He truly died for our sins, and that if we acknowledge this, we can have eternal life. What’s there to loose by trying? Doubt is not the problem. Jesus invited us to,

• Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-11)

Doubt will “ask;” doubt will “seek.” Disdain for God will do neither.