stay strong by faith

it’s been exactly two months since the Great Tohoku Earthquake that devastated north eastern part of Japan with big tsunami and nuclear crisis following the 9.0 magnitude earthquake. it was the biggest earthquake ever recorded in Japan. even the tremor is felt quite strong in Tokyo which is located about 300 km from the epicenter. the tsunami destroyed everything around the coastal area, wiped away cars and houses, brought them level to the ground. the cooling system in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was crippled by the wave that caused radioactive materials released to the atmosphere.

the disaster was huge enough to bring fear to people even in Tokyo. so many people, especially foreigners, fled away, some to the west, and not a few, back to their countries. immigration offices and airports were packed with people who were trying to get out of the country. many nations through their embassies in Japan strongly urged their citizens residing in Japan to go back, and even the embassies themselves were trying to relocate to other cities other than Tokyo.

some people got depressed and traumatized. a labmate from C country cried after the big long earthquake. even a friend of my friend from T country whom I just met a few days after the disaster greeted me saying “hi. nice to meet you. you might die tomorrow.”

i myself didn’t worry so much. i got a bit panicked after the first big shock since it was very long and i realized it wasn’t just a common quake, and at that time my leg was injured so if something worse happened i might be in trouble. but after a while observing the situations, although the shocks still didn’t stop, seeing my neighbors weren’t in panic as well, i believed that everything would be okay.

the interesting thing is, while many of my friends got calls from their families, forcing them to go back home, my family didn’t. my mom was travelling abroad with my grandma at that time so she couldn’t contact me. my dad just texted me, asking about the condition, and just told me to keep praying. last week i went to my aunt’s house and we had some chats about the earthquake. she said that after the quake she still went on shopping, and when she informed my grandma, the answer she got was only “oh i see”. she realized that our family is so calm toward this.

through this experience, through sermons in church, and through what my aunt said, i kept being reminded about faith. faith is an important thing to have for believers. a faith that entrusts our lives to God, a faith that believes that our Father will never forsake us, a faith that He is in control of everything. the reason why we can be so calm facing this kind of situation, it’s all because we have faith in an awesome unshakeable God. even in the worst case scenario, we don’t need to be afraid because our lives is already in His hands. with faith, i believe that we can face any disaster that might come to our lives, because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. -Heb 12:26 [NLT]