Shock and Awe

I love the quote from John Updike, found over on Heigh-ho:

Our brains are no longer conditioned for reverence and awe. We cannot imagine a Second Coming that would not be cut down to size by the televised evening news, or a Last Judgment not subject to pages of holier-than-Thou second- guessing in The New York Review of Books.

It's true; it takes something like Katrina to really get our attention, doesn't it?

We live our lives under the delusion that we humans have total control over our circumstances. The comforts of modern life insulate us. Science can comfort us with elaborate explanations, predictions and cures. The law and Homeland Security will make sure we're safe. Our pastors, professors and politicians will hand down to us The Truth. But when something like Katrina hits, we see how thin that veil really is and we are left shocked by what have lost and awed by the powers that can sweep it all away.

When the something bigger, the government, our education, our strength and resourcefulness or even the All Mighty Dollar, gets swept away, what are we left to rely on? Jesus said,

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:19-21

We are only shocked when we treasure those things that can be swept away.