Volume 28, No. 25
July 13, 2003                       

Run For Your Life

   It was death by corruption, not eruption.

   In April 1902, Mt. Pelee on the Caribbean island of Martinique began to quake and rumble.  In St. Pierre, the town underneath the volcano, no one was very worried because the mountain had threatened before, only to settle down and grow quiet again.  But when Mt. Pelee began spewing heavy ash and searing lava, residents finally decided it was time to get out of town.

   The trouble was, city elections were only days away.  Both the mayor and the governor were worried about a radical new party that championed equality for all races, which threatened white rule on the island.  So Mayor Fouche and Governor Mouttet refused to let anything delay the crucial vote, which they thought they could still win if it were held right away.  The editor of St. Pierre’s paper backed the politicians by publishing articles quoting phony “volcano experts” who said there was no immediate danger.

   Suddenly, the “harmless” mountain vomited a violent mudslide that wiped out a sugar mill, sweeping away all the factory workers inside.  Soon after, an entire seafront district was smashed to smithereens by a giant wave caused by underwater aftershocks.  But when panicky people picked up their few possessions and rushed into the roads out of town, they found the highways blocked by soldiers sent by the governor.  No one could leave before the election. When the residents went to the local church and begged the bishop to get involved, he refused to go against the politicians.

  As Election Day dawned, Mt. Pelee exploded.  A huge cloud of superheated gas, ash and rock careened out of a crater and smashed into the unprotected town at a hundred miles an hour.  Within three minutes, the population of 30,000 was dead, including the mayor, the governor, the editor and the bishop.  Only two people survived.  One was a man in prison.  Held in a basement cell with only one small window that faced away from the blast, the man was badly burned but later toured with a circus as a sideshow attraction.  The other survivor was the town shoemaker, a deeply religious man who was also horribly burned but lived to tell his tale of grace and survival.

   This story reminds us that we must heed the warning signs when sin threatens to do us harm.  At the first hint of trouble, we need to run for it, not fall for it.  Dabbling and delay can only get us in deeper, making it that much harder to escape when the pressure mounts and things start to blow apart.  Ultimately, we have two choices.  We can run from the devil, or run with him.

   When self-interest is our sole interest, it’s our soul-interest that suffers.  That’s when we start to listen to those who say there’s nothing to worry about.  After all, we’ve got plenty of time, we know what we’re doing and we’ve got an escape route all picked out.  Besides, we assume we can get out while the gettin’s good, so there’s no need to rush, just when it’s gettin’ good.

   But sometimes when we finally try to make a run for it, we find our way blocked.  Satan is “the prince of this world” (John 12:31) and he’ll do anything to draw out his dominance as long as possible.  Jesus wants us to take him seriously and, again, there’s a tough choice.  Evil will either do its work within us, or without us. But doing the right thing is even harder in a culture where many church leaders refuse to stand up to politicians more concerned with power than piety.

   If we don’t flee from evil while we’re able, the results are often devastating, both for ourselves and those we love.  Sin can scar and disfigure.  Thankfully, God doesn’t punish us “for all our sins, nor does He deal with us as we deserve.” (Psalm 103:10)  “Though He brings grief, He also shows compassion out of his unfailing love... [So] let’s test and examine our ways.  Let’s turn again in repentance to the Lord.  Let’s lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say, ‘We have sinned and rebelled...” (Lamentations 3:31,40-42)  

   As survivors of sin by God’s grace, we’ll be seen by many as either freaks or fanatics. Spare yourself the grief.  Run for your life.

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the Followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To subscribe, contact sgamble@bfree.on.ca