Those of us of a certain age may remember a song by Carol King on her Tapestry album entitled “I feel the earth move.” The chorus has the following lines:
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky come a tumbling down
I feel my heart start trembling
whenever you’re around.
This song is obviously a love song but it reminded me of when I was at Beachy Head recently, sitting, almost, at the cliff edge. (Don’t worry I was there admiring the view, not for any other reason). The photo that I have attached to this message shows the original path that seems to suddenly fall away at the cliff edge. Believe me that cliff looked incredibly unstable and I didn’t want to venture too close.
It surprised me that there was no fencing to stop people going right up to the edge – but then if the cliff is crumbling away, how often would it have to be replaced!?
Closer to home there are the cliffs along the Norfolk coast that are falling away. On another cycling holiday I visited Happisburgh and found the road suddenly ended having fallen into the sea. It didn’t happen when I was there, so I didn’t physically feel the earth move. However, both the cliffs at Beachy Head and at Happisburgh are a very real physical demonstration of what happens when the earth moves, when the sea rises, and when the sky comes tumbling down in severe storms.
If we continue to allow global warming and sea levels continue to rise then cliffs will move and roads will tumble away.
Is our faith sometimes like that? We carry on doing what we think is right and then suddenly the road we are travelling falls away.
Prayer: Loving God, forgive us that for so long we have thought we have “got away” with our wasteful habits, we have not looked to the future and now we see the road ahead falling away. Help us to change our wasteful ways so that the road we travel on will be stable for us and for future generations. AMEN