The couple came into my office expecting miracles. They were deeply wounded and horribly sad. They related a pitiful tale of tragic loss and pain. They wanted help and hope. They expected too much from me. So, I had to level with them.

“I’ve never repaired a broken relationship", I confessed. "I’ve never healed a broken heart. I cannot restore lost joy and lost hope. I cannot provide daily doses of supernatural peace. I’m not that good. I’m not that powerful. But, I do know Someone who can."

This earthquake unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia. It was so powerful that the quake shook Earth to the core. Our planet wobbled on its axis. This 9.0-magnitude temblor that struck 250 km south-east of Sumatra island on a Sunday altered the regional map and the tsunamis that followed left more than 23,000 people dead in eight countries across Asia and as far away as Somalia. The International Red Cross estimated upwards of one million people were displaced by this single natural disaster.

This causes me to think. Are there personal earthquakes so powerful as to release destructive relational and emotional tsunamis sufficient to destroy faith and hope, families and marriages?

Of course. I have spent over twenty years in personal and family counseling. I have witnessed numerous personal earthquakes with equally destructive relational tsunamis where lives are destroyed and families are ripped apart by tragic events. I have seen persons and relationships so scarred by the relational tsunamis that follow these events that a lifetime of therapy can never fully repair the damage.

Personal tragic events are capable of shaking all relationships to the core. They can cause a marriage to wobble and fall off its axis. It can shake faith in God and faith in humanity. But emotional tremors do not have to lead to utter relational devastation of lives and relationships unless those things are built on shifting sands. There is solid rock available for all to build upon. Rock so solid that it will never fail!

We are all flawed to some degree. Relationships are equally flawed. We all make mistakes. Everyday we fail to live and love as we should. This causes great problems. It does not have to turn our hearts to stone.

Tragic events can happen to anyone. They can shake marriages and families. They do not have to leave us lifeless and loveless. Jesus died to provide a way for all to have full access to his supernatural power, joy, and peace.

There is nothing in the external world that can so shake me internally as to remove my supernatural peace and my supernatural joy.

God's is unchanging. God's love never fails. Me, on the other hand, I am vulnerable and wounded. My faith may waver and my relationships may “wobble” but I do not have to come apart at the seams by emotional or relational tsunamis. My faith and my family can be intact and secure. My faith and my relationships are built upon that which never fails!

Love like God. Live like God.