Could You Survive A World Calamity?

Common Sense Commentary:   "Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase." Prov. 13:11

I was born at a pivot point in American history.  The Great Depression had just begun a year earlier. There was devastating unemployment, terrible poverty, plus the Southwestern Dust Bowl unfolding in our country. WWII was beginning in Europe and would soon engulf the U.S.  The war launched sixty years of unprecedented prosperity and high tech everything.  As a boy, mule drawn wagons and cowboys on horseback were and everyday sight in Sweetwater, Texas. Now, at 81, we have satellites rocketing around the earth from which I can dial anyone in the world or watch every news item on TV instantly, around the world.  From saddles to satellites in one lifetime.

Another great change and historic pivot point is now unfolding before our eyes. When the really hard times come to America, and the "chickens come home to roost", who will survive and who will not.  I am not speaking of eternity or of being a Christian. I am speaking of human life here and now. 

If you had to face an unsettled land with essentially no resources, except the soil and your energy and a hoe, could you survive in an unsettled land, as our pioneer, great great grandparents did?  In a land of wild wild Indians, snakes, grizzlies, and no doctors, little water, harsh winters and no stores of any kind, how would you survive?

Don't sell our forefathers and mothers short.  Few had an education, but they laid the foundation of what became the most successful nation on earth.  They couldn't drive a car, or use a computer or cell phone, and most could hardly read or write, but they had
"survival" knowledge. They could haul all their earthly possessions across the Continent, in a wooden wagon full of the implements of survival.  They could fight off marauding Indians, treat snake bite and a dozen diseases, drink muddy, ill tasting water
.... and survive.  They could stop in the middle of nowhere, a hundred miles from a three building town .... and survive.  They could dig a well fifty feet deep, through sand-stone to water, build a rock wall around it, hang a pulley or barked pole above it  ... and survive.  They could saw every board or dig up enough rock or make mud bricks and build a shanty of a home .... and survive.  They could plow a field full of rocks, sow a crop, weed it, water it, weed it and reap it .... and survive.  They could build a barn for their hay shocks and start a herd of cattle with two calves, doctor them, protect them, lose them and start again .... and survive.

Wives knew how to dry, bury can or preserve their harvest, raise chickens and prepare, plant and have a garden and store up the excess for a long cold winter ... and survive.
They could do all that and a thousand other chores while pregnant, give birth in a field or two room shack or soddy, without a doctor or midwife ... and survive.

So who of us will survive with no super markets or electricity, if it came to that?  New Yorkers?  Las Angelites?  Chicagoans? ...  where hundreds of thousands of hungry people are just beyond your four walls?  The answer is, of course, those who have taught themselves how to garden, save, store-up, save, make-do, use-up, and wear out.
Plus who is prepared mentally and physically ... but the key element is faith in our great God ... for "physical" survival. Yes, Christians will be caught up to heaven when the Great Tribulation begins .... but what about the months and years building up to that short seven year period?   The Apostle Paul said he had a "desire to depart" and be with the Lord "but to remain was more needful" to bring more souls to Christ. Phil.1:23-24. We may come to the place where we too have a desire to depart to heaven ... but we must live, thrive, survive until our time comes. We too must endure whatever comes and be witnesses for Christ, in the hard times, but we cannot do so unless we do survive our weakness, ignorance of survival tactics, weariness and difficulty.  Read, learn, preserve your resources, continue to function no matter what the future holds.  Be a vibrant, effective Christian .... survive ... for our Lord's service.

God commissioned Joseph, in Egypt, to store-up food in preparation for a famine.  Gen.41-42.  There are two sides of wealth ... the greedy, rich farmer who couldn't get enough of everything and the wise steward who was not greedy but diligent in the use of his masters goods in Lk.16:1-8.

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." Prov.6:6-8.   "He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame." Prov.10:5  "He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding." Prov.12:11.  RB