Don't know about you but my head's still spinning with the news of the last few weeks' events.
It began as I, and the world, watched with awe at the miraculous rescue of 33 miners from their underground cave in Chile. Questions flooded my mind: how did they maintain their sanity throughout that time? What kind of a daily routine did they establish? In response to news that one miner jogged 10 kilometers a day I couldn't help but wonder if he just ran in circles. I wanted a bit more time to process the skill of the rescuers and savour the praise given by the rescued men to God and to those who delivered them from certain death. A few days to soak in a bit more of that joy would have been great.
It wasn't to be. Within days of that victory we were plunged into the horror of the Russell Williams debauchery. There was no rescue for his victims and I can't even imagine the hell his wife and family are going through. I desperately wanted to forget the whole thing, but yet I needed time to put it in perspective before I was ready to move on.
"Whoa," my mind pled, "Give me time to get my bearings!"
The more I thought about it, I decided to make up a term to describe my feelings. I've called it Accelerated Move-On Syndrome (AMOS) and though there is a time to move beyond the past, there's also a need for us humans to extract God's message from every circumstance of our life. That lesson may be one of rejoicing or, sadly, of the destructive power of evil.
"Seek good and not evil that you may live let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream," (Amos 5:14, 24 - the real Amos)