This Is Not a Drill

By now, just about everyone has heard about the false alarm sounded in Hawaii last Saturday morning. A government emergency management employee pushed the wrong button during a test of the state’s emergency notification system, and a million people received a text message that a ballistic missile was inbound on Hawaii. It told people to seek shelter and ominously added the warning: “This is not a drill.”

For thirty-eight minutes, until the state sent a new message saying the alert was a false alarm, people scrambled to find shelters such as bathtubs, storm drains, and reverse slopes of nearby mountains. Many thought the end was near, with one newlywed couple despairing that their new life together would end as soon as it had begun. When the alert was cancelled, the people certainly felt relief, but also anger that such a scary mistake had even happened. Others have since expressed my concern that the false alarm could have a “boy who cried wolf” effect, so that any future real emergency alerts could be ignored.

When I heard about the false alarm, I thought back to my early grade-school years. During those days, the nuclear threat from the Soviets seemed very real. Civil Defense groups and shelters were organized (I remember one being in the basement of the YMCA building where my dad worked), some people built underground fallout shelters in their back yards, and schools held air raid drills. Yes, I grew up with those: when the school alarm sounded, we all had to leave our classrooms and line up along the hallway walls, with our hands on our heads and our heads tucked between our knees. They never told us what we were to do next if there had been an attack, but since they were just drills, we always went back to our desks and classes resumed.

Later, when I was in college, someone had a poster in his room which gave the same air raid instructions, but with a slight twist: the final line read, “Tuck your head between your knees and kiss your (you-know-what) good-bye.” That irreverent poster poked fun at the naïveté that thought our actions would save us from a real atomic bomb, but you have to remember those days were less than 15 years from the end of World War II, during which people did survive bombs and missiles. Also in defense of those drills was their usefulness in doubling as tornado drills; the procedures were exactly the same, and the likelihood of a tornado was much greater.*

Today (January 15) I was listening to Tom Sullivan’s talk radio show, and after talking about the false alarm in Hawaii, he asked a very good question: “What would you do if you heard that a nuclear missile was headed your way?” The responses were all over the place: one caller said he would go up onto his roof to watch the fireworks, another said he would start drinking because he heard that radiation cannot pass through alcohol (he was joking), while others said they would just express their love to those they care about and wait for the end. People generally realized that trying to evacuate their city would just result in massive traffic jams, and that there was nothing they could do to survive the attack. I guess those fallout shelters of the 1950’s and 60’s weren’t such a bad idea after all . . .

Tom’s question and the various answers seemed to center on practical, physical actions that people might consider when faced with such an impending disaster. Would they try to flee, hunker down in their homes, or seek better shelter nearby? That’s an interesting question, one that everyone should at least consider. Having a family action plan in preparation for any disaster is a good idea, whether that be for a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake, a volcano, a riot, the zombie apocalypse, or a nuclear attack. Having a few provisions, extra food, water, and clothing on hand is always prudent.

But while practical actions can be important, I am more concerned with people’s spiritual preparation for the end. If you knew absolutely that today is your last day on earth, what would you do about it? How would you spend your day?

• Will you try to avoid thinking about it by keeping entertained or by self-medicating with drugs or alcohol?
• Will you contact all your friends and family to tell them you love them and say good-bye?
• Will you reconcile with those whom you have wronged, and forgive those who wronged you?
• Will you spend your last hours in prayer, reading the Scriptures, confessing your sins and receiving forgiveness?
• Or will you charge up a bunch of stuff on Amazon and opt for same-day delivery?

The question about your spiritual preparation for “the end” is not an idle, hypothetical exercise. After all, we all face the end in one way or another. If it’s not a nuclear missile flying our way, it could be a car accident, a wildfire, a mudslide, a sudden or chronic illness, or a violent crime, to name just a few dangers. However our lives end, they will end, unless the Lord returns before we die – and if he does, then spiritual preparations will mean everything!

So how do we prepare? God’s Word gives us instructions:

1. Recognize that we are mortal, and that we will die. “For dust you are and to dust shall you return.” (Genesis 3:19) and “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) and “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls.” (1 Peter 1:24). These are just a few among many passages that affirm our mortality.
2. Rejoice that God loves you and has provided a way for you to overcome death and live forever – through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. John 3:16 summarizes God’s love and provision through Christ; other verses include 1 Peter 3:9, which says that God does not wish “that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” And let’s not forget Jesus’ own promise in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
3. Realize that the time of our departure is not up to us. Jesus told a parable about a rich farmer who delighted in his bounteous crop and built bigger barns to hold all his harvest. “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you!” (Luke 12:20). Similarly, Jesus warned that no one knows the day or hour of his own return; he said he would return like a thief in the night, so we should always be ready. (Matthew 24:43, also in 1 Thessalonians 5:2)
4. Reconcile to God through faith in Jesus Christ, and to others with whom you may have hard feelings. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;” (2 Corinthians 5:18). Ask forgiveness for the wrongs you have done, and forgive others who have wronged you. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:23-24, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
5. Receive God’s own peace, the peace that passes understanding, that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

These are good practices whether we know a missile is on its way, or not; after all, even though we pray that day will never come, our own personal time is approaching. And as for putting your head between your knees, how about just putting your knees on the floor, bowing your head, and spending time in prayer to your Creator and Redeemer instead?

After all, this is not a drill!

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: John 3, 1 Thessalonians 4

*(In fact, a tornado hit a church preschool in Franklin, Indiana during a tornado drill, destroying all the classrooms but not harming anyone, since they were safely in the hallway, heads tucked between their knees . . . I spoke with one of the firemen who responded to the tornado; he said that it happened on a beautiful day, and that the preschool director ordered the drill after a passing thought that they hadn’t had a drill in a while. When the fireman arrived on scene, he was in horror and expected to find bodies everywhere, but found instead that no one was hurt. He said it was absolutely God’s protection that saved the children.)