It's not hard to figure that those who've come from the front lines of fighting the fires, those who've helping the injured and those who have lost their homes

It's not hard to figure that those who've come from the front lines of fighting the fires, those who've helping the injured and those who have lost their homes are probably doing some hard thinking about their experiences right now. Fighting any confronting, seemingly loosing battle will do that, and it's human nature to be philosophical ("let me find a logical model that pattern-matches well to these specific inputs, but which is sufficiently complicated enough that I juuust can't quite logically verify the model itself properly") to cope. But if I were going to pick a Bible passage that I felt was the most consistent pattern-match for this situation, I'd probably use Matthew 24:6-7: 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. Shrug I'd file what's going on over here pretty unhesitatingly under "pestilences". I'm actually wondering where to move to in future; I'm currently a comfortable distance away from all the hotspots, and would (selfishly) like to keep that status quo. Such logistical considerations may become disillusioningly commonplace in future; hopefully not too distractingly so... The reason I like the passage above is the bit about "the end is not yet". It's ironic: even as I do believe in the Rapture (or at least the vague, hand-wavy gist of it that the majority of denominations that are prepared to face the idea all agree on) and/or life after death, my soul's currently stuck in this specific body for now, and I have to figure out the best way to move forward. Luke 19:11-13 comes to mind: 11 And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. 12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. The end of verse 13 is my current focus at the moment, and helping me deal with some circumstantial depression that is causing me to lose sight in the value of the simple things. ADHD and concentration issues also make it easy for me to get distracted by details and lend me to top-heavy thinking and castle-building in the sky. The thing is, beyond the simple understandings that are conveyed in the Bible, and the experiences of a few people that say they've visited Heaven (and who all have noteworthily consistent stories), I have no idea what happens Next™ - you know, after the end of the world. So trying to plan or schedule for or obsess over the future would be premature optimization - even as that leaves me with an absolute sense of "but wat even do I do now then????". One final verse comes to mind, 1 Corinthians 13:12: 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. Cross-referencing this with later verses in Luke 19 from before, 16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. Obviously my life goal is to figure out how on earth I'm supposed to "occupy" even while I can't even see what I'm doing properly because I "see through a glass, darkly" (mirror technology wasn't too great 2000 years ago; modern semantic equivalences might be 300k webcams, or JPEG quality levels below 40) so that, beyond the end of the world, what I do retains value. I officially have no idea what I'm doing.