LOT’S WIFE AND THE EARTHQUAKE IN DC.

So what do Lot’s wife and the earthquake that shook from Virginia to Washington DC to New York. I think plenty. Scientists have not yet found a way to predict earthquakes or even detect them with pin point accuracy, say like the weather. But, last year around this time, there was an earthquake measuring about 4.5 on the scale. Most people slept through it. I believe that it was because of God’s tender mercies that most did. I of course was awake and trying to get dressed for work. This time around one my greatest fears came to fruition. I was sitting at my desk, and I was discussing a report with my boss on the phone. My office is in the basement and the walls and floors are so thin that whenever anyone walks by our office, the walls will shake a bit. So, needless to say when someone is moving heavy furniture, the whole room moves with it. But, this day I heard what sounded and felt like someone dragging a large piece of equipment across the linoleum floor, and the room started to shake and stop. Then all of a sudden it started to shake and jerk and then shake hard. My boss on the phone said “What is that?” I said, did you feel that too? She said yes and we both hung up. Now I don’t know the protocol for earthquakes. But I grabbed my purse, and I told the rest of my co-workers to grab their bags and get out of the office. I ran out to the nearest exit, up two flights of stairs and outside. There were a lot of people running with me, but not my co-workers. So after standing outside until the shaking stopped, we all decided to go back in. Now, what was conspicuous was that no alarms or overhead announcements went off in our building. There was a little widespread panic, but no help or assurance from the Powers that Be.

When I returned to my office everyone was there and they laughed at me. They said that the Operating Room was built to withstand bombs, they felt safe there. I told that we were not hit by a bomb, we had an earthquake. I told them that “when” and not “if” the next quake hits, I am leaving the building. If they wanted to wait and become trapped underneath rubble and/or die, I know that the hospital will bulldoze over the area and rebuild and dedicate a plaque to their memory. That’s pretty harsh isn’t it?

It seems that my co-workers have forgotten the “winter of 2010-11”. It was pretty bad from January to March. On one particularly bad snow day, the weather man all but told everyone to leave their places of work by 1:00 and go home. There was a bad storm coming in around 3:00pm. He was right. My boss practically sprinted out of the office without so much as a second glance to us; she knew what her priorities were. I made the decision to close the office; I was walking out the door at 1:30pm. I told everyone to follow me. Again, they just looked at me, and I heard that they stayed until 3:00 pm when the storm came roaring in, on time. The roads were so bad; most people did not get home until the next day. Seriously; now after all of this earthquake business, we have been experiencing aftershocks for 2 days now. Now there is a man with a sign, walking up and down the sidewalk proclaiming “The End is Near”. Someone made a statement to me that “maybe they should start tithing”. Why does everything have to be the “END OF THE WORLD”? I know that the Lord wants’ us to get our priorities in line. He wants us to come unto Him, and partake of his rest. I can’t speculate about “natural disasters”, but personal adversity is something that everyone has to endure, whether you believe in God or not.

Now the story of Lot’s wife is about obedience versus complacency.

Luke 17:28-32
28 Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, and they built;
29 but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
31 “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one, who is in the field, let him not turn back.
32 Remember Lot’s wife.  

Luke 17:32 Remember Lot’s wife
Neal A. Maxwell
“The reasons prompting Lot's wife to take one more tempting look back at Sodom and Gomorrah, instead of being obedient to the command she and Lot had received, were inconsequential in comparison with the consequences of her disobedience. Looking back, said Jesus, will not do for us either. Wistfulness or uncertainty over leaving the ways of the world brought the Master's stern advice to ‘Remember Lot's wife.’ (Luke 17:32.)“While our temptations or difficulties are very real, we can pass such breaking points without actually breaking if we keep our perspective!” (We Will Prove Them Herewith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1982], 27.)

The second glance that Mrs. Lot took spoke volumes about her character, her role as wife and the state of her marriage to Lot. She didn’t seem care about her daughters, or even her husband. She wanted to remain in her comfort zone of Sodom. Maybe she thought that God would change his mind, and she could just watch for a while on that mountain ridge. It is not so much that she was turned into a pillar of salt, but that she was lazy. For all of the wonderful blessings she had enjoyed in her life as Mrs. Lot, her heart was not prepared to receive instructions from Heavenly Father. She did not obey, even to save her life.

Now we are indeed blessed beyond measure that so far the earthquakes haven’t been devastating. I am really discouraged to listen to my co-workers and even my boss just act as if it never happened. Everyone speaks as if “We dodged a bullet”. So I have refurbished my emergency back pack and I have it in a prominent place in my office. I suggested that everyone should do something. Again the laughter.