The day after Christmas a couple of years ago brought one of the most horrific catastrophes known in this modern era. While many of us were preaching about the love of God found in the birth of His one and only Son. Multitudes of others half way across the world were experiencing a disaster of such great magnitude that thousands upon thousands were killed. I remember coming home from church and hearing the news that huge waves had engulfed entire villages in Indonesia and other neighboring countries and that countless upon countless of lives were lost, many injured and others missing. Many of us had never heard the term, tsunami until this dreadful event, but now it is forever embedded in our consciousness. I was startled to learn that so many people died from tidal waves that many ride on fiberglass boards. But not even the camera footage seen on television could adequately portray the monstrosity of this unleashed power of nature. It was interesting for many of us here to learn that tsunamis are giant tidal waves of water created as a result of a seismic earthquake under the ocean floor. And the moving of land plates enough to jolt the earth's rotation, caused a reaction that produced gigantic waves that literally swept entire villages away. Everything, and I do mean everything in the path of these waves was leveled and destroyed.

I can't help but think of the great enormity of a tsunami and the power it wields. Experts and eye witnesses were saying that these waves were as high as 50-70 feet. When I imagine the vastness of this force I can't help but think of God's Grace. I believe in an odd sort of way, God's grace has the same devastating effect as a tsunami wave. Firstly, God's grace reverberated as a result of an cosmic event of unparalleled proportions: God Himself became a man, the second Adam who lived among men who died on a cross and rose again all for the redemption of His creation. Have you really comprehended how this must of registered on the seismic scale of eternity. The walls of space and time itself shook and are still shaking. When the Creator of the Universe became man, dwelt among men (humankind) and then died for all men. This one seismic event sent shock waves of grace and love that were so enormous and vast that they reached into the past, present and future and even into that world that doesn't have time at all. Secondly, it left the world as it was devastated.

You might be saying to yourself PD you are using the wrong word, God's grace isn't devastating. Grace is a positive force. But speaking from one who has been hit with it's [grace] force. God's Amazing Grace is truly devastating. I looked up a definition of 'devastation' and it read, "To lay waste; destroy. To overwhelm; confound; stun". I thought this definition was perfect for the state one is left in when your 'old wineskin' way of thinking and performing is confronted with the force of Grace that is found in the person of Jesus Christ. I want to take you back 2000 years to graphically show this (twin) tower toppling power of Grace.

A young man named Saul was riding along on his donkey [conjecture] or walking after successfully killing some Christians and wanting to imprison others in the synagogues in Damascus. While on his way, he was blinded by a bright light and was knocked literally off of his seat or feet. Suddenly he heard the voice of Christ speak to him and ask why he was persecuting God himself. Paul needless to say was stunned. He was shocked into blindness. His encounter with Christ left him devastated. He was laid waste. His entire world view was to change. This once Pharisee of Pharisees, a champion of the law and defender of works based religion, was now tsunami(ed) in an avalanche of Grace. It literally destroyed his world and brought him into another one, the Kingdom. Saul went from one who could boast of pulling himself up to God by his own boot straps to gladly admitting by the close of his life that everything was a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. Can you imagine the devastation in one's psyche from self exaltation to being abased in Christ? Let's hope so… this is the result of a Grace Tsunami. You are never the same again. A chain reaction has been started that will first kill the old you and totally mess 'your' life up forever. A matter of fact it is no longer 'your' life. It is a complete devastation of self with ongoing waves of sanctification that wash upon the sandy beach of the heart. Changing us from the inside out.

The aftermath of a Grace Tsunamis leaves the sinner undone like the woman caught in adultery who had prepared herself to be pulverized by stones and rocks yet found herself not only alive but set free to truly live. This type of onslaught is overwhelming for the old self where performance brings love's rewards and punishment is deserved from our choice to do wrong.

This is my prayer for God's most wonderful creation, humanity, as it strolls along the beach of self sufficiency, working feverishly for significance, longing to be loved and accepted…that you will be caught off guard (as I) in your own understanding, devastated by the awesome waves of God's Tsunami Grace and swept away into the ocean depths of our Father's Unconditional Love. May there be no 'self' survivors left.