Fires and Tragedies
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and we are still reeling. I mean, reeling from the recent shooting in Thousand Oaks, where 12 people lost their lives in a massacre at the Borderline Bar and Grill, a restaurant we pass all the time on the 101 driving through Thousand Oaks. It was an incomprehensible tragedy—so many people I know were somehow impacted, even among coworkers at Joni and Friends. Neighbors and friends were lost in that horrible shooting. But even before our community was able to catch its breath; just as we were coming together to grieve, the fierce Santa Ana winds, all hot and dry, kicked up brush fires in Bell Canyon just north of where Ken and I live, and also a fire storm in Newbury Park, just beyond Thousand Oaks. It seemed the flames were all around us and we had to close Joni and Friends early that day.
The next morning, the girls who got me up stayed with Ken and me throughout the day and often we would huddle and pray for the firefighters, people who were losing their homes, and of course, the families who were still grieving from the Borderline tragedy. In the afternoon, we lost power. Then we had to hunker down, pull out our camping stove, and lanterns, and wait for any evacuation calls from the LA County Sheriff’s Office. After our campfire dinner, the police came with a mandatory evacuation notice, so Ken and I packed up and headed to a friend’s house. They closed the main freeway—embers were flying, the air was smoky, the winds were wild, and once we arrived at our friend’s house, we stayed glued to the radio, just praying, yes, for people’s homes and their lives, and yes, for the family still grieving the Borderline tragedy, but mainly, we prayed for revival. Because this was a time for just that, revival.
Think of it, when tragedies strike whether they are natural disasters like these wind, whipped fires… or a human disaster like a shooter who enters a restaurant with a gun and mows down college students…no matter what the tragedy, God uses them as wake-up calls. They are yellow blinking lights and red flags waving; they are loud alarms sounding the call, “Wake up, wake up, wake up! Life as you know it is not the only life there is. There is eternity just over the horizon and right now, you are getting a tiny taste of hell let loose. It’s a warning from God meant to remind us all, sinners and saints, that this life is brief, fragile, frail and short. Tragedies are God’s way of either drawing people to Him as they search for comfort and honest answers…or tragedies push us away from Him. Sound ominous? Maybe, but even Jesus said in Revelation, I wish you were either hot or cold; but because you are lukewarm (because you think nothing about Me), I will spit you out of my mouth. That’s what natural and unnatural tragedies do.
By the way, as Ken and I drove home after the evacuations, we talked about the many prayers that went up to heaven while fires raged, and families grieved. And would you continue to join us in prayer? Yes, it’s been a while since the wildfire and shooting, but pray for saving faith and a spirit of repentance. And if you’d like to join us in doing that, tell us about it on our Facebook page or let us know at Joniradio.org. Let’s not wait for the next tragedy. Pray for renewal. Pray for revival.
© Joni and Friends
