Wasteland, part 1
(A continuation of Reactor, part 1 &2)

They called them liquidators. The brave men and women who entered the Chernobyl Power Plant after the meltdown. They worked to stop the fire and clean up the destruction. No one has a detailed list of the clean-up. How many hours it took, the number of brave souls who worked on it, or even their names. There is an uncertainty in how the activities of the crew and the amount of radiation each was exposed to will affect these workers in the future. This is the reason that no one knows their names. Those in charge don’t want people to know the damage done. The cost of the clean up. The lives that were affected.

Does any of this sound familiar? No one wants to take responsibility. No one wants to asses the actual damage. No one wants to come face to face with what was done and what the aftermath has brought. In many ways the picture of Chernobyl is the picture of our meltdown. No one wants to take responsibility. Adam points his finger at Eve and in essence, points at the Maker. He says “The woman you put here with me.” He not only points to the woman, tries to avoid responsibility, but he blames God.

How many of us would enjoy a world where there was only one command that could cause damage, one that could wreck the core? Every day the news covers a list of sins brought about because of the broken core, and we cry. If only we had that perfect core, if only we could experience what it was like before the meltdown. Eve was no better. One thing that I appreciate about Eve is at least she understood that Satan had tempted her, not God. She knew that what happened was ugly. She understood that it was not what God had intended. She knew that Satan had fooled her and there was no way to change what had been done. But she still blames. She still says it is the serpent who deceived her.

Very little has changed

We still live in a world that in most cases is unwilling to deal with the consequences. How many of us deal with sin in our lives by acting like it doesn’t exist? Even Christians who should know better often attempt to sweep sin under the rug of daily life. Putting it under the carpet doesn’t fix the problem, it simply allows it to grow undetected.

How many times does Jesus instruct the disciples to take care of their sin? If a brother sins against you go and take care of it. If you have an issue with your brother go before you leave your sacrifice and take care of it. We can also read as the apostle Paul instructs the early church to take care of their anger that day, don’t wait, don’t try to sweep it under the rug. This is not focused on sin and forgiveness, it is about our broken core, but these issues must be understood, the wasteland needs to be seen, before we can address the core.

In the end, often times no one wants to take blame. No one wants to see the list of causalities. No one wants to recite the damage done, but we can, and we should. Until we identify the extent of the damage we can never see how incredible our need is.

We understand wasteland. We understand that there are places we don't want to go and things we don't want to see. No one that I know of plans their summer vacation around a trip to the Chernobyl region of the Ukraine. The area is bleak and uninhabitable. If you do go you will want to wear a protective suit. You will want to keep the trip to a minimum. Yet we live in a creation that is broken, the core is cracked. A power more destructive than radiation has created a wasteland in our hearts, a wasteland that permeates our world. How do we live in this wasteland?

Soon after the explosion and core meltdown in Chernobyl the Russians built a sarcophagus around the site to contain the radiation. A sarcophagus is a large cement encasement that entombed the reactor to insure that radiation doesn’t continue to leak. Now due to cold and snow, wind and rain the sarcophagus is weakening and in danger of collapse. You see all man can really do is attempt to contain the damage.

No matter how much we pickup or throw away, it is impossible to do more than contain the damage done that day. Robots are all that is allowed into the dark reactor number four. The danger is too great, the damage to severe. The site is a hostile environment now because of the destruction, the meltdown, the cracked core.

The area is constantly monitored and measured, tested and retested. Man is attempting to contain and to keep the area safe, but there is nothing we can do to fix it. The damage is already done, cleanup is all we can afford. You and I are no different.

You see, just as man can not cleanup Chernobyl and make it an inhabitable place, we can not clean up our own core. No matter how much we may say we can. Some believe we can at least clean up some, pick up scraps here and there, get rid of a sin of this and that, but it’s not true, we are helpless. In the end it really doesn’t matter how attractive they make Chernobyl look, it can’t change the broken core. No matter how many flowers they plant, no matter how much paint they scrape, the core is still broken. And no matter how many good actions we take, no matter how many nice things we say, we can not fix our own broken core.

If you went there today you would see empty buildings. A deserted amusement park. You would see land that seemed normal if you didn't know the truth of what took place, that lurking within each crevice, each drop of water, each particle of dust, something sinister remains. Something deadly has taken hold, and because of it mankind takes precautions.

What hope do we have? We live among the ruins. Surely there must be something, some way to survive in this wasteland.

To be continued…