Talking about Ground Zero! The world is abuzz over the reported underground detonation of a hydrogen bomb by North Korea this week. Other than state propaganda, information from out of the Hermit Kingdom is hard to come by. But analysts have concluded the 6.3 Richter scale quake in the northern sector of the isolated country on Sunday was triggered by a test nuclear explosion, perhaps North Korea’s largest nuclear detonation ever. Photographs of their feared leader Kim Jong Un examining a suitcase size hydrogen bomb only add to the speculation he now has the capacity to arm an intercontinental ballistic missile with a warhead that conceivably could threaten major distant cities in both the Far East and the U.S.

Why even a tabloid in London, playing on the fears of an anxious public, headlined the news, "North Korea nuclear attack threat: What will happen if H-Bomb hits London?": "A North Korea attack on the heart of London would utterly destroy around nine square miles of the city and instantly kill tens of thousands, according to terrifying new data provided by NukeMap. The website shows in horrifying clarity the extent to which an H-bomb attack would impact all corners of the city, which is one of the most obvious European targets for the rogue state" (www.express.co.uk/news/uk/849959/north-korea-news-nuclear-attack-uk-london-world-war-3-hydrogen-bomb). Perhaps a bit of tabloid overkill, to be sure, but an indicator nonetheless of the fear that continues to drive this hour of uncertainty on Earth.

And given all of this, jammed between two devastating and record-shattering hurricanes in our own hemisphere, on our own shores—one could be excused for more than the usual dose of paranoia over the state of affairs lately. Even the investors on Wall Street have embedded their personal fears into the gyrations of the major indices.

Any good news in the midst of all of this? Actually there is. Jesus’ own prediction of the prevailing mindset at this juncture in history—"people will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world" (Luke 21:26)—describes an unrest that plays into His mission to save lost people. Check this out. "Happiness researcher Dan Gilbert has written that ‘human beings come into the world with a passion for control, they go out of the world the same way, and research suggests that if they lose their ability to control things at any point between their entrance and their exit, they become unhappy, helpless, hopeless, and depressed.’ We want to be able to imagine the future, and we want to be able to prepare for it. Uncertainty makes this awfully hard" (www.unstuck.com/advice/afraid-change-science-uncertainty). Which being translated means times of overwhelming uncertainty drive the human to seek new certainty, new security.

Our default setting is always to try and turn disequilibrium back into equilibrium (homeostasis) as quickly as possible.

And when we try, guess Who’s standing at the door knocking? "Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:22). Because crisis and change are a valuable catalyst to urge the human mind to turn towards the possibility of the divine. You’ve tried everything else—and the anxiety and fear remain undiminished—so why not turn to Me now? "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

While we wouldn’t wish bad news on anyone, the fact remains that times of uncertainty and change are powerful opportunities to point those we know, those we love to the unchanging love of our changeless Lord—Whose impassioned appeal will remain unchanged to the very end: "Come to Me now."

PS—Why not pick up some printed invitations to Unlock Revelation (beginning September 25 @ Pioneer) in the literature rack? Let God make His invitation through you. It’s the right time, wouldn’t you say?