Under The Surface
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! (Psalm 27:14)
In her book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson tells the story of a heatwave striking the normally frozen tundra of Siberia in 2016. In a region of the world that is normally frozen, temperatures rose to over 95 degrees, wildfires flared, and pockets of methane bubbled beneath the soil which was normally frozen. Soon people started getting sick from a mysterious illness that they had never before seen.
Russian authorities declared a state of emergency as people struggled to figure out what had happened. Turns out, the sudden rise in temperature thawed the soil so much that it released a toxin that had been encased in ice underneath the surface since 1941.
During World War 2, herds of reindeer were killed by a deadly pathogen called anthrax. Their animal carcasses, contaminated with the deadly bacteria, laid hidden in the dead bodies of those reindeer frozen underneath the ground. But when the temperature got hot and the dead carcasses began to thaw, the spores from the bacteria seeped through the land and water, and began to spread and infect the people. People got sick and many died because there was something deadly buried beneath the ground that was exposed by the heat.
This story gives us a great representation of the importance we need to place on who we chose to partner with. Oftentimes, people have issues that are buried beneath the surface that they don’t show us. They have character flaws and issues and skeletons in the closet, and all it takes is for a moment of intense heat and pressure to arise before the deadly bacteria of their lives begins to come to the surface.
So let me encourage you. Don’t settle for just anyone. Don’t overlook red flags because you don’t want to be alone. Sure, she can be fine like Beyoncé and he can be handsome like Denzel, but that doesn’t mean you still won’t find yourself sick when the pressures of life expose who they really are. Save yourself a lot of heartache, save yourself a lot of pain, and wait until God sends the right person to you. I promise, choosing to wait is a decision you will never regret.
In her book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson tells the story of a heatwave striking the normally frozen tundra of Siberia in 2016. In a region of the world that is normally frozen, temperatures rose to over 95 degrees, wildfires flared, and pockets of methane bubbled beneath the soil which was normally frozen. Soon people started getting sick from a mysterious illness that they had never before seen.
Russian authorities declared a state of emergency as people struggled to figure out what had happened. Turns out, the sudden rise in temperature thawed the soil so much that it released a toxin that had been encased in ice underneath the surface since 1941.
During World War 2, herds of reindeer were killed by a deadly pathogen called anthrax. Their animal carcasses, contaminated with the deadly bacteria, laid hidden in the dead bodies of those reindeer frozen underneath the ground. But when the temperature got hot and the dead carcasses began to thaw, the spores from the bacteria seeped through the land and water, and began to spread and infect the people. People got sick and many died because there was something deadly buried beneath the ground that was exposed by the heat.
This story gives us a great representation of the importance we need to place on who we chose to partner with. Oftentimes, people have issues that are buried beneath the surface that they don’t show us. They have character flaws and issues and skeletons in the closet, and all it takes is for a moment of intense heat and pressure to arise before the deadly bacteria of their lives begins to come to the surface.
So let me encourage you. Don’t settle for just anyone. Don’t overlook red flags because you don’t want to be alone. Sure, she can be fine like Beyoncé and he can be handsome like Denzel, but that doesn’t mean you still won’t find yourself sick when the pressures of life expose who they really are. Save yourself a lot of heartache, save yourself a lot of pain, and wait until God sends the right person to you. I promise, choosing to wait is a decision you will never regret.
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