Day 64 – Praying for earthquakes…

I realize that the phrase, “Praying for earthquakes” sounds odd, so let me explain.

There are hundreds of identified faults in California; about 200 are considered potentially hazardous based on their slip rates in recent geological time (the last 10,000 years). What does this all mean? Well, being a geography major, I have a better understanding than most…remember my ECU diploma?

This planet we live on is constantly expanding and contracting. There are plates that have to shift as a part of nature. If these plates shift gradually, no worries. But if they get stuck and the pressure builds up then when it does shift…it pops and that can result in a devastating earthquake.

California has had its share of devastating earthquakes, so my thinking was that I would pray for the plates to shift gradually inland or shift gently out in the ocean so the pressure would be relieved without major damage. My desire was to pray for small movements to keep everything safe. Of course, I have no idea of the big picture of things, I just know that it felt like I was doing something to protect everyone in California.

However, on May 2, 1983, after being in California for three years, I was in the back yard of our home doing my Martial Arts workout and my wife said, “Did you feel that?” I was moving around in the grass, so I felt nothing, but she was sitting in a chair on the patio and felt tremors. Soon I found out that 150 miles south of us in Coalinga, CA a 6.2 magnitude earthquake had happened and flattened most of the town. Miraculously, although 45 people were injured, no one was killed. I’d like to think that my intercession helped save lives, but I’ll never really know.

Sadly, 4 years after I left and was living in Ohio, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake happened in the Bay Area, and it was devasting with loss of life and property. It seemed like there was always something to pray for in California…earthquakes, not enough rain causing forest fires, or too much rain causing mudslides.

A lot of the problems were because people wanted to build homes in areas that had no business having homes in them…too close to the ocean on steep hills or in valleys where there were constant natural brush fires and should not have been inhabited. But people tend to want what they want regardless of the safety factor.

I heard people say that California was like granola…a lot of fruits and nuts mixed in with flakes. I’m sure we had our share, but I loved the people in California, and it really was a beautiful state.

Historically, the weather was so good in California that the indigenous people never had to get past the “gatherer” stage of society. Fruit and plants were abundant for the taking as was the seafood. So, when the Spanish came in with guns and steel, the locals were taken over quite easily.

There is something to be said about a hard life making strong people, like in Minnesota where I had just come from or like the Children of Israel who had weathered the storm of the wilderness and became difficult to defeat.

For some reason, California sure seemed like the Promised Land with an abundance of food to be grown year-round and at one point, gold just laying in the streams. By far, the most populous state in the United States. California has nearly 40 million residents, comprising a whopping 12% of the country’s population. If California were a country, it would have the eighth largest economy in the world and the 36th highest population!

Consider this, if you drive from New York City to Miami on the east coast it is 1, 288 miles. Driving from north to south in the same state of California is 1,040 miles. It’s got the longest coastline, the tallest and biggest trees, the worst desert, and the best farmland in the country. It really is quite a place and as much as I loved my time there on two different occasions, sadly I don’t think I would go back. Of course, I still really appreciate and respect the state and the people who live there.