The earth is the Lord’s. The 9.0-magnitude earthquake onMarch 11 in Japan, followed by a tsunami and nuclear disaster, brought enormoushuman losses. And deadly tornadoes and endless days of triple-digit summertemperatures again reminded us that we rely on a perfect symphony of God’sprovidence for our safety.Exorbitant debt enslaves. Remember when S&P devalued theU.S. after the eleventh-hour raising of the debt ceiling? It served as areminder that the lender controls the borrower.Work is a gift from God. Unemployment remaining stubbornlyat 9.0 has a way of forcing us to recognize again that skilled, hard-workingpeople can find themselves stuck at home sending endless resumes and updatingtheir LinkedIn profiles ad nauseam. Steady income is not a “given.”Greed leads to injustice. And money is the root of all sortsof evil. No matter what our opinion about Occupy Wall Street, the movementdemonstrated what can happen when people feel disempowered and ripped off bythose lacking in financial scruples.Some things money can’t buy. The death of Steve Jobs tocancer at 56 reminded us that even if you’re about the most creative person onthe planet and you have pretty much all the money a person could have in thisworld, you still can’t purchase your own life. You can’t spend enough onresearch to stop disease. And you can’t stop humanity’s greatest enemy: death.Only One conquered it, and he had no place to lay his head.Life is sacred. We held our breaths awaiting news on thecondition of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head at a publicevent. Oh, the value of one human, created in the image of God!Power shifts. North Korea got a new president. And the ArabSpring spread from Tunisia, bringing down regimes in Egypt and Libya. Rememberthat pivotal statement, “Another king arose who knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1:8;Acts 7:18)? Only one government will last. Sadly, revolution rarely ushers in amore stable, sane form of rule.Depending on how you define victory, love wins. But thediscussion about it isn’t always loving. Of course I’m not referring to theroyal wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William. I’m alluding to the book byMichigan megachurch pastor Rob Bell.When the wicked perish, people rejoice.  The day U.S. commandos stormed Osama binLaden’s Pakistani compound, Proverbs 11:10 showed up on many tweets and FBposts: “When the righteous do well, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish,there is joy.” The same verse got quoted again when Muhmar Qaddafi was killed.And when Kim Jong Il died.The world as we know it will someday end. Now we’re on to the newyear, when people already disagree about what we should expect on Dec. 21,2012. That’s when the Maya's "Long Count" calendar marks the end of a5,126-year era. Wait—we’ve seen this sort of date-setting before. How aboutthat California evangelist Harold Camping, announcing the world will end inMay. Or maybe or October. Or…? Perhaps in 2012 Jesus will indeed return on May21. Or October 21. Or December 21. The big question is this: No matter when,will we be ready?