Category 5 Hurricane Warning

Having been born and bred in Singapore, you could say that I’ve led a very sheltered life. Literally. Singapore has somehow been placed in just the right position to enjoy the benefits of trade, yet avoid (so far) all sorts of natural disasters.

The nearest fault line is several hundreds of kilometers away in Indonesia, so earthquakes are but distant tremors to us, and the only hurricanes that have appeared over Singapore were the British fighter aircrafts that patrolled our airspace during the World War. We were even spared from the tsunami, having been protected by Sumatra’s landmass, which is fortunate since the 10 meter wave could well have drowned our puny country in one fell swoop!

Perhaps this is the reason why we have a false wall of security built around us. Even the flash floods that have recently wrecked its havoc in Singapore have been somewhat classified as an “unexpected inconvenience”, one which is unlikely to recur.

But are all these incidences just a warning for the huge storm to come?

Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors or wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

--Matthew 24:4-8 (New International Version)

Beginning of birth pains?! Wow, talk about making something sound insignificant! But can we really trust the Bible, or is this all just a whole bunch of nonsensical ramblings? After all, there have been wars and hurricanes and earthquakes throughout earth’s history, but the second coming hasn’t come! Interestingly enough, Chaplain Mike brings up passages where Jesus foretells the reaction of many who hear the warnings but choose not to believe in them.

But are we going to wait for the hurricane to strike before regretting, are we going to start making just-in-case preparations, or are we going to trust the warning siren and go into full-blown preparations?

What say you?