In a vision, I saw a wobbling tornado that spun like a top right beside the earth-- near to falling over as the top part arched and grew larger and larger. As it circled upon its axis, it leaned this way and that way, sucking into its vortex people standing nearby who thought they stood far away enough and were safe. Unfortunately, its wobbling engulfed them because they had ventured too close.

Our earth wobbles upon its axis. Recently, scientists have solved the mystery of the "Chandler wobble", a phenomon discovered by an astronomer names Carlo Chandler. In it, the period of "wobble" takes 1.2 years and amounts to about 20 feet at the North Pole. The scientists had calculated the wobble should be reduced to zero in just 68 years, unless there were some force constantly acting to reinvigorate it. Now they know that there is a force, and what that force is.

They discovered that the principal cause of the wobble is fluctuating pressure on the bottom of the oceans, caused by temperature and salinity changes and the wind-driven changes in the circulation of the oceans.

Changes:

Fluctuating pressure changes

Temperature changes

Salinity changes

Wind-driven changes

We live on a planet that is in constant motion. We wonder what is causing the global climate changes. What is responsible for retreating glaciers and melting ice caps? Tsunamis, hurricanes, drought, flooding? Is it global warming? Is it this...is it that?

When we are caught up in the wobble in this earth, we can expect to experience vertigo. Vertigo is explained by Wickopedia as: "a specific type of dizziness, is a major symptom of a balance disorder. It is the sensation of spinning or swaying while the body is stationary with respect to the earth or surroundings."

C. S. Lewis famously made this point in his observation that “God whispers to us in pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

Perhaps Isaiah's prophecy explains the spiritual wobble in the earth. The prophet saw the earth physically reeling to and fro like a drunkard...but it was sin that was the energizing force that made it fall.

Isa 24:20 "The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again."

What sin? What trangression? Surprisingly, what the scientists discovered is also a very good description of what can also happen in the hearts of many Christians. These four scriptures may explain:

Fluctuating pressure changes: who are no longer steadfast and unmoveable (1 Cor 15:58)

Temperature changes: who are lukewarm; neither hot and cold (Rev 3:16)

Salinity changes; whose salt has lost its savor (Matt 5:13)

Wind-driver changes: who are tossed to and fro and are driven by every wind of doctrine. (Eph 4:14)

No matter what cause we may think wobbles our world with its problems; whether global warming, terrorism, homosexuality, or greed, perhaps we need look no further than into a mirror to solve the great mystery why we might be finding it hard to stand on our feet.

MARY E. ADAMS

August 2007