Scott Tibbs
blog post
January 11th, 2004
Back to Archived blog posts.
Two natural disasters and a very personal tragedy in my life have reminded me of just how helpless we, as humans, are in the face of God's awesome power.
First, 21 people are missing due to mud slides in California that have resulted in three confirmed deaths. The picture to the right demonstrates just how helpless man is in the face of something like this. Of course, the devastating tsunami in Asia has resulted in an insane amount of destruction.
To be certain, technology has made our lives not only easier, but more fun. Where the human race is in our ability to deal with nature (air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter, for example) is far beyond what it was only one hundred years ago. But in the face of powerful mudslides in California and the Asian tsunami, we realize just how powerless we are.
Medical science has come far as well. A century ago, many people (like myself) diagnosed with cancer or other diseases would have had no hope of survival. But we are still mostly impotent. As I shared yesterday, my father-in-law, Rob, passed away on Sunday after a six-month battle with lung cancer. As much as medical science has advanced even in the last five years, all of the knowledge and technology of human beings could not save the man who has become my Dad.
We have a great deal of hubris as human beings. We worship ourselves, and we think that human intelligence, knowledge and "wisdom" can solve our problems. To be blunt, we humans are insignificant specks of dust on a rock orbiting a nuclear furnace.
And yet, God created us in His image, to worship Him. We are, in all of God's creation, special. But that special status exists only in the context of us being spiritual creatures serving the Lord.