I love disaster movies. It all started with the Poisden Adventure back when I was young. The movie about an upside down ship and the survivors have to fight their way through to save themselves before drowning with the ship. I love movies like that. I love watching people fight their way out of difficult situations. People fighting the odds, working their way through extreme problems and then making it through. Conquering heros. I absolutely love that.

I just went and saw the movie “San Andreas,” this past week. The basic premise of the movie is California has massive earthquakes up and down the San Andreas fault, flattening towns, toppling buildings, causing explosions and fires, and basically totalling EVERYTHING. This divorced couple has to fight their way up to San Francisco to find their daughter. There was one line in the movie that gave me goosebumps. The hero of the movie answers a lady, after he directed them to a safe place so they wouldn’t get hurt. He said, “You have to get up against something sturdy to protect yourself.”

I immediately thought of God. “You have to get up against something sturdy to protect yourself.” Isn’t that true? We have to get up against something sturdy to protect ourselves. Because those storms will come. Those disasters will happen. The rug is going to be ripped out from underneath you. And you better be prepared. You better be up against something sturdy to protect yourself.

Isn’t God the most sturdy Person we know? His love is unfailing. He is all powerful. He is all knowing. He is everywhere at all times. He is loving. He’s  been through a major crisis Himself. God sent His only Son down to earth TO BE KILLED. His son was sent down here to die. It wasn’t going to be an easy death either. He was to be crucified. Before His crucifixion, He was to be beaten so badly, He would be beyond recognition. His back would be basically shredded to ribbons. Then, He would carry His cross, that would be His place to die, upon His back. The crucifixion would be more brutality. Talk about a cruel way to die. The Romans would nail his hands and feet to the cross. He would hang on the cross until He died. Before All of this, He would be mocked, spat upon, and a crown of gnarly thorns placed on His head. Jesus knew what He had to do. He even asked to have “this cup taken from me.” However, in obedience to God, Jesus took it all. AND then He rose from the dead. He…rose…from…the…dead!

I would say God is “something sturdy” we can “get up against.” He asks us to “get up against” Him.

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you,” 1 Peter 5:7

“Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken,” Psalms 55:22

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” Matthew 11:29-30

Those are just a few favorite verses of mine that comfort me in times of trouble and show me that God is sturdy and I can get up against Him. He WILL hold me up. He WILL sustain me. He WILL take care of me. God IS good. And the best part of all, He IS very sturdy, we can get up against Him. When those storms come. When the earthquakes happen, we have God to get up against, to protect us.

I don’t know what I would do without God. What do people do when the world explodes, when tragedy strikes, when they experience incredible loss? What do they do? Without God what does the non believer lean up against? Nobody skates through life without pain and suffering.

If God has been through suffering Himself. If God has the power to raise the dead back to life. He is definitely sturdy enough for us to get up against. He is our rock. He is our salvation.

Not only that, but He asks us to cast our cares upon us. He tells us to take His yoke upon us. Do you know what that means? I have a picture of two oxen stuck together with a wooden yoke. I saw them at the fair once. This farmer was explaining the oxen and their yoke. They have more power when they are yoked together. They also train the young oxen by yoking them with the old oxen. God is saying He’s the old oxen, we don’t have to fight through life, He will bear it for us.

So ” get up against something sturdy.” Get up against God. He will sustain you. He will carry you through ANYTHING!

I just got back from a trip to Hawaii. I know, I know…rough life. We stayed with my sister and had a blast. We hiked, swam, and walked Waikiki. AND we saw sea turtles. We looked for sea turtles. We discussed where one can see sea turtles. We drove all the way to North Shore to see sea turtles that hall themselves up on the sand to warm up and dry off. We stood for about fifteen minutes staring at this big sea turtle just laying on the beach. Water came up and washed over him. He just laid there barely moving. My sister took tons of pictures. Not that the turtle changed positions or even bothered moving his head. He just laid there, this dark circular mound on the shore. But the excitement to see this guy. When my husband went out paddleboarding, he came back with tales of spotting a sea turtle while out there. When you spot a sea turtle it’s like sinking a 3 point shot in a close basketball game. It’s like winning the sea turtle lottery. You are dubbed amazing if you spot one. You gain major bragging rights. Why all this excitement?

Well we don’t see sea turtles everyday. Here is one of God’s creatures. One of millions, God designed on the 6th day of creation. This slow moving greenish creature that swims in the ocean. All this excitement to see a simple creature of God’s creation. I started thinking about heaven. If we are so excited to see a sea turtle, imagine what it will be like to see heaven? Imagine. We have a few descriptions God’s given us: a gate made out of gargantuan pearls, a crystal clear river running through it, streets of gold…They just put new asphalt on my parking lot. They think that looks pretty and new. I’m not impressed. WE’RE talking STREETS of GOLD, PEOPLE! Imagine that.

As I look around the world today, there is beauty to behold. There are sunsets, ocean views, animals, trees, snow capped mountains, blue skies, and babies, to name a few. I just can’t seem to picture heaven. I only have what John described in the book of Revelation, but that’s all I have. My mind can’t seem to grasp it. Of course, I’ve never been there. I can’t wait for the day I do see heaven. I long for it. I just can’t seem to picture it.

I remember when I was in high school and I worked at the local grocery store. There was this college guy who had come up to work at the store for the summer. One day we just so happened to be in the same aisle and chatting. I can’t remember how it started, but we got on the topic of heaven. I said I was a Christian and was going to heaven after I die. He looked at me and laughed loudly. He asked me why in the world did I want to go to heaven, where everyone floats on a cloud and plays a harp? I was taken back by this sad description of heaven. Where in the world did he get his idea about heaven from? A cartoon? Or, some kid’s book? He said that he couldn’t think of anything more boring than that. He said he was an atheist, but if there were a heaven or hell, he’d much rather go to hell and party with his friends. Heaven was just too boring. I had never heard anyone speak about heaven that way. I was too young and not versed enough to counteract his “most excellent argument about heaven.”

I would have more to say to him now. I would have told him about the sea turtle. I would have told him how God created the sea turtle and people flock to see this creature. God made him and we are fascinated to see it. God made you. God made clouds. God made man who made things like harps. Look around at the world you live in. God made all of it. He made man in HIS image. He made man with the capacity to love, think, celebrate, laugh, invent. God made heaven. It is God’s place of residence. Heaven will never be boring. We have a tiny, partial picture of what it will be like. Floating on a cloud, playing a harp is not God’s idea of heaven. Now hell on the other hand…the absence of God…eternal separation from our creator…I really don’t think you want that.

I remember a number of years ago my husband was a groomsman in a friend’s wedding. Both my father-in-law and I went to the wedding while my husband stood up with his friend. During the reception, my husband sat with the wedding party, while my father-in-law and I sat at a table together. Champagne glasses were passed out and champagne served to everyone. I’d never tasted champagne before, so I thought I’d try it. My father-in-law, sitting next to me, tried his, so I decided to be brave and try mine. My father-in-law took a sip, so I went for it and took a sip, just when my husband was coming over to our table to say hello. It freaked him out just a little. Just as he arrived to the table, he sees his dad and wife taking sips of champagne. I only took two sips, but I had to do it right when the hubby caught me.

I don’t drink. That’s why the hubby was freaked out just a little. It’s not because I’m a Christian that I don’t drink. Though the Bible tells us not to get drunk. Ephesians 5:18. I don’t drink because I am from Alaska and I’ve seen what alcohol abuse does. Alaska may be the land of the midnight sun, but it has a very dark side to it. I’ve had many close relatives die from alcoholism. When you see people actually die from the stuff, it’s sobering. Alcohol kills. And based on the record on my dad’s side of the family, we all apparently have fragile livers.

There is a lot of alcoholism in Alaska. If you think about it, it makes sense. Alaska has long, dark, cold winters where no one wants to go out of the house. Cabin fever is a real problem. During the cold deep of winter, you can go to work when it’s still dark outside, then get off of work and it’s dark again. That’s a lot of darkness. Our human bodies need some sun. It’s dark AND cold outside. So if one has a chance to go outside, one may be deterred based on the severity of the low temperature outside.

If I wasn’t a Christian, growing up in Alaska, I probably would have been a drinker. It’s what everyone else was doing. All the kids in high school talked about getting drunk over the weekend when they got back to school on Monday. The foyer of the grocery store had drunks in there all the time. When I worked at the grocery store, I got proposed to at least once a month by some drunk who followed me down the aisles of the grocery store. I grew up in a town of about 1500 people. For a town that small, we had two bars and a liquor store. We were grand central station for all of the dry villages around us. (Dry villages are when a village outlaws all liquor in their town).

My mom used to play the piano for our little church. She would drive out to the church about once a week and practice. I was usually the tag along. If mom needed company, I was it. One particular night we were coming out of the church to go to the truck when my mom and I spotted a drunk up at by the stop sign of the road. My mom said to hurry up because the drunk spotted us and started staggering our way. As I tried to open my side of the truck, I realized the window had been shattered. There were little pieces of glass everywhere. Distracted with the broken window, we weren’t fast enough to beat the drunk that was headed our way. He caught up to us and demanded we give him a ride. My mom said ok. Oh great mom! Thanks, I get to sit next to a drunk. He hopped in the cab of the truck with me stuck in the middle. He smelled of alcohol and kept picking up pieces of glass, leaning on me, and yelling, “Who broke my window!” I was miffed sitting next to him thinking, “Well you did you moron!” He kept breathing his boozy breath on me and yelling about the broken glass. Thankfully we didn’t have far to go to drop him off at the beginning of town.

So drunks and drinking was everywhere in the town I grew up in. I accepted the Lord Jesus as my savior when I was nine years old. And with my conversion I discovered the power of the Holy Spirit. God says not to be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5:18. I really knew what that meant at a young age. I had seen drunks everywhere. I had seen them make fools of themselves. The Holy Spirit was working in my life, teaching me, that I never needed booze. The power of the Holy Spirit in my life has no side effects. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we never make fools of ourselves. We don’t wake up with hangovers or a long list of guilt and apologies. And the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. The fruit of too much alcohol is: hate, self-loathing, fried livers, sickness, guilt, weight gain and no self control. Can you see why I don’t drink?