What if the world stopped spinning?

 

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

How would you feel if your bins were not emptied and rubbish was lying in the street? Not so long ago, in Warrington (near where I live), that’s the way it was. Some refuse workers and street cleaners were on strike, probably for good reasons. However, it did expose many people to potential health hazards. 

 

A couple of years ago, I was going to Ballymena in Northern Ireland for a week. My planned route of travel took me through Liverpool John Lennon Airport. A few days before my departure date, I read on the web that some baggage handlers were on strike. On arrival at the airport, expecting long delays, I was delighted (very selfishly) to find out that the strike did not affect my flight. It did, however, inconvenience many people and cost the travelling public money in the long run, as employees had to be shipped in from Dublin and other places to do the striker's jobs. 

I have not been affected by people striking for quite a long time apart from the recent action by junior doctors. However, I remember well the miner’s strikes, the fuel protests, and many other types of strikes in my sixty-two years. Strikes are a very effective, if not annoying and sometimes illegal, way of making a point. In the long run, someone suffers, and it costs money.

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

Have you ever thought about how the natural cycles and processes of the natural world are managed and maintained? I am thinking about things like the water cycle, wind and tides, the process of producing solar energy, etc. We try to harness these things, and human activity and behaviour can affect them, but we don’t ultimately manage or control them. Have you ever stopped to think how our world is so well designed and has such efficient systems for life to exist on this planet? It’s all by chance, you say, I'm not convinced!

Stop for a moment and imagine if the world stopped spinning on its axis! The consequences would be cataclysmic. Have you ever considered why the sun shines every day and the moon is always there at night? You may disagree with this view, but I believe it’s not because of ‘mother nature’ but because of ‘Father God’. The Bible teaches in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 that God through the Lord Jesus ‘upholds all things’ by His spoken and powerful word. 

If, as the old song says, God holds the ‘whole world in His hands’, it would be worth considering letting Him keep you safe as far as your eternal destiny is concerned. To those who trust Him, He says, ‘I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand,’ The Bible - John 10:28. 

It is the safest option to be in God's hands, as He has a long track record of handling, saving, and protecting those who trust Him. The truth is that God cares for all and has created a world that is good for all when it is not mismanaged or damaged by human behaviour.

Many years ago, in the ancient city of Athens, a Christian preacher was invited to address a meeting of Greek Philosophers. His speech is recorded in the Bible. I have added some selected quotes from the text of his presentation, as they express timeless truths that are still valid for a 21st-century audience. The things men worship today might be different, but their need for truth is just the same.

Acts 17:22-31 Paul Addresses the Areopagus (ESV Bible)

‘So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”