hellfire, ur . . . hailstones

This part of the world has generally mild weather, except for temps, which are really hot in the summer and plenty cold in the winter. But last night was an exception. We had a 30 minute blast of hailstones falling out of a lightning filled sky, and torrential rain to boot. Our street became the Amazon river. Even our basement had water in it - a first.

But the worse part of it was that Brenda and her parents were caught out in this storm . . . or at least we thought. So we just prayed for their safety until things let up enough that Jake and I could venture out looking for them in the car. Just as we were going out the door, the phone rang and it was Brenda calling to tell us they were safe and asking if we could come pick them up. Whew!

We were amazed and in awe of the storm. The kids and I watched it from all the various angles we could in the house and on the balcony. Unfortunately the flowers did not fair well in the storm, nor did our grape vines. The marble ice rockets pretty much ripped them to shreds. But flowers will grow back . . . we are most relieved that everyone was safe. There was still debris everywhere this morning.

That hailstorm came out of no where . . . and it was loud and scary. It reminded me of judgment. No one really thinks much about judgment. We all seem to feel that we are no worse than anyone else. And in truth, we aren't. Unfortunately "everyone else" is not the standard of measurement being used. I was a bit amazed how difficult it was for my students at Evangelical Theological Seminary to accept that there is an eternal place of pain - hellfire - where people will spend eternity. Somedays I wonder if my students are not the only one's struggling to believe this.

In today's cultures of "tolerance", it gets apparently ever more difficult to believe BOTH that God will permit large numbers of human beings to suffer in eternal torment AND that He is ever gracious and loving. The dissonance created by the tension of believing both of these tenets at the same time gets steadily more difficult to bear. I feel like these beliefs are seeping out of evangelical christianity and instead we have a creeping universalism taking hold that reflects the beliefs of our culture and urban legends more than God's Word. I see this in myself some days and it worries me. I have to shake my head and remind myself of the truth. Oh Lord help my unbelief. But I am convinced that the majority of us are struggling with this concept, for our sense of urgency about world evangelization is a true barometer of how feverently we believe this or not. I don't see and sense much urgency in us these days. People are almost always more interested in cultural differences and unique experiences of the missionary, than the purpose of being one in the first place.