Evacuation Order

Jared Hagan

Do you ever wonder about the people who won’t leave? It always seems to happen. A natural disaster is occurring and mandatory evacuations are sent out, but some people just won’t leave. They hold out hope that the hurricane won’t be as bad as the experts warn. They think that maybe they can protect their house from the oncoming fire. Whatever their thinking, they are often wrong. Lives are lost as a result, not to mention rescuers risking their own lives to save those people.

Why wouldn’t they just leave and be safe? I suppose they don’t believe the warnings. I suppose they are attached to their stuff and unwilling to risk losing it (not that they can really protect their homes and stuff in a large natural disaster). I suppose that they don’t want the hassle of evacuation. After all, the roads quickly get overwhelmed and escape is tediously slow. Why bother, right?

But after the disaster is over, I have heard many people, after being rescued, comment that they shouldn’t have stayed.

I don’t know about you, but I always find myself nodding along with them. “Yep. You should have left.” And I confess to thinking the people a bit foolish. They were warned. They should have known better.

Do you agree?

If so, perhaps you should consider the warning that John gives us about this world. “The world is passing away” (1 John 2:17). This world is doomed. We’ve been warned by the foremost expert: God. He isn’t guessing.

The world is doomed. All of the material things of this world will be destroyed. But not just that. John adds, “And also its lusts” (1 John 2:17). All of the worldly desires are doomed too.

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

This world is facing a disaster unlike anything it has ever seen before. It will truly be the end. It could happen at any moment. And God has—in a way—sent out an evacuation order. Flee from the lusts of the world (1 Peter 2:11). Dedicate yourself to spiritual holy conduct which will last rather than focusing on worldly things that won’t (2 Peter 3:11-13).

Have you obeyed the order? Or do you find yourself making the same mistakes as those people we spoke about earlier? Do you act like the world is doomed or have you attached yourself and your heart to everything the world has to offer? Maybe we don’t think the end will really come, so we go on living a life focused on physical things and following worldly lusts. Maybe we don’t want to give up the things of this world. Maybe we think that doing so would be too painful and too much of a hassle.

It is so easy to sit in judgment of those on television who’ve had to be rescued because of their stubborn foolishness. But maybe they are just a reflection of ourselves. In their case, at least some of them survived. Those who don’t heed God’s warning won’t be so fortunate.

 ~via Market Street Messenger; Athens, AL.