We will not fear though the earth should change…
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2026 Blog #26
July 27, 2026
We will not fear though the earth should change…
The title of this blog is recorded in Psalm 46 as part of a longer pondering of God’s protection even when there is a natural calamity. I grew up hearing this Psalm, but I never understood it at a deep level. I could read the words and hear the words but it I never really understood it on an emotional level.
The closest that I came to feeling the power of God’s created nature was the coming of hurricane Sandy almost fourteen years ago in October 2012. It damaged and destroyed many building but this didn’t happen in my area. We had a big storm with a lot of wind and downed tree branches. We were without power for ten days, but I was never afraid. Our house was secure. Many people suffered a lot from Sandy, but I didn’t.
Two years ago, the earth in New Jersey really did change. We had an earthquake here that measured 4.8. It upset and scared many people. I missed this event. I was in an elevator at the time and did not feel a thing. When my elevator arrived at the ground level, I was surprised to see a number of agitated people all talking about the earthquake that I never felt.
During this past week, I understood the “earth changing” on a deeper level. Our weather predicted thunderstorms and as I worked in my office I could hear hard rain outside my window. I didn’t think much of it. After a few minutes, the thunder and lighting began. A short time later, the storm picked up in intensity. Our physical plant was now in the middle of a major, and rather scary, storm. I assumed that our building would guard me, the office staff, and the two groups of young people in our building, safe. The two groups in our building at the time was our co-op nursery school, and a chess academy.
The weather didn’t care who was in the building. It worsened and the lighting flashes grew brighter and the thunder grew louder. After a few moments, a thunder boom rocked my office and our fire alarm system activated. I could hear children screaming as a reaction to the loud fire alarm horns. The earth, or at least my piece of earth had changed.
I didn’t want to bring the children outdoors in a lightning storm, but they couldn’t stay in the building. Fortunately, we have overhangs between buildings on our campus, and we herded the students to another building within our campus. I listened to the deafening alarms as I waited for the fire department to arrive. One of the nursery school workers informed me that she saw lighting hit our church steeple.
The fire department arrived and silenced the alarms. The inspections of every room of our three buildings began and they were time consuming because of the size of our campus.
When the fire department was told of a witness seeing the lightning strike, firefighters immediately began to inspect the steeple. Quickly a ladder truck was raised, and a firefighter began a visual inspection. Others entered the sanctuary and ascended toward the steeple from the inside. Both groups were unable to confirm a lightning strike despite the eyewitness account and the fire alarm being triggered.
The fire department concluded that our buildings were safe and the children could return to the classrooms. The firefighters were unable to reset our alarm system, so we had to walk the halls ensuring that there were no fires. I, and another church member, did hall patrols.
When the alarm company arrived, the technician concluded that a part had burned out. He carried no such part, and another technician would need to return the next day. At this time, we discovered that our internet was off as well. I felt grateful that we had received such a small amount of consequence from a lightning hit.
The forces of nature were not done yet. A few hours later, we received a tornado warning. Once more, the young people were ushered out of classrooms. This time they were huddled into hallways, as far from outside windows as we could get. The tornado watch ended within a half hour without any touch down in our area. Just twenty miles from our location.
At the end of the day our children were safe and went to their homes. Our physical plant was undamaged. Within a day our alarm system was reset and our internet was restored. It was a day that I would not want to live through again, but I was reminded was again of Psalm 46
To the leader. Of the Korahites. According to Alamoth. A Song.
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present[a] help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah
I felt God’s protection this week and I’m grateful for it.
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