Swine Flu

Everybody should have heard abt the swine flu or H1N1 situation by now, esp the pp from back home, where dramatic measures seem to have been taken. Many pp have been asking us how the situation is here. As of today, there are are 34 confirmed cases of swine flu in Massachusetts but none of these people seem to be staying in our area. Other than the news we get from the TV, and N95 masks being sold out, everyone here seems to be going about normally in their daily lifes. At W's hospital, no extraordinary measures seem to be taken ie. temperature monitoring, masks for all with patient contact.

So far, I've had 2 reactions to the situation. The first is that I'm strangely unconcerned about our safety. Ok, maybe it's not so strange that I'm quite at peace. When I first heard of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and how some pp in the US have been infected, my first reaction was 'SARS again?' but that was quickly followed by a reminder of how God protected W and I through the SARS situation despite us having been in close contact with patients. I know that God who protected us then will keep us safe again and that He knows better than I do about the whole situation and how things are going to turn out. Anyway, we've got way too much food in the freezer and if we've got to stay home for some time, it should feed us for a looong time :)

The second is that I started to think about the end times that the Bible talked about and what that means. In Matthew 24: 5-8, it says
For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of 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.
I'm just wondering what this whole thing is all about. There's been lots of natural disasters in the recent years, calamities that have not occured for 10s or 100s of years: the tsunami, floods, earthquakes, now a flu pandemic? What's happnening? Is this really just a consequence of the human race destroying earth with global warming or is there something else?

I find that in times like this, I'm reminded that my life on earth is finite, that many of the things which I consider important are actually immaterial in the time of death. Work, money and many other problems start to fade away and I start seeing a little of the big picture. I only get to live once and I would really like to learn to walk with God during my life here, I would also like to love and enjoy my family more and I would like to make my life count by helping others with their life. I've been very thankful for the break that I'm enjoying, I've had time to think through all the stuff that I've been doing and to decide what's actually important. We're just thankful to be able to live life a little differently now.