On the 14th of January 2025, David Fickling writing for Bloomberg Opinion has an article titled, “Hollywood fires will cause harm long after they burn out”.

Hi, this is the Daily Monsoon, my name is Terence, and today we look past the big scary disasters seen on the news to the crisis that follows, less sensational but most lasting and often more deadly.

From David’s article:

Particulates permeate the air we breathe, whether in cities or the countryside. The ones known as PM10 are about one-tenth the width of a human hair and can penetrate deep into our lungs, where they cause cancer and heart disease. PM2.5 is four times smaller still and can make it into the bloodstream – and from there, almost every tissue in the human body.

And later David writes:

Somewhere close to 55,000 premature deaths in the state between 2008 and 2018 were caused by PM2.5 from fires, according to a study last June led by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles. That makes such particulates a bigger cause of death in the state than road accidents, and a far more serious risk than homicide.

As of today, it is reported that the fires caused 24 deaths. That number will go up in the following weeks. Let’s say it reaches 55 deaths, more than double what is reported today. Now, let us assume the premature deaths stay at 55,000 even though the fires today are much worse than the previously studied ten years.

That means the number of people who will die because of the particles will be 1000 times more than those who die from the direct fire.

But that number will be under-reported. How many people know about the 55,000 deaths before? I didn’t know about it until I read David’s article.

Once the photos and videos are gone, out of sight, out of mind.

For example, nobody wonders about the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake victims anymore. Other than the victims and the people directly helping them. The rest of the world has moved on.

In that earthquake in Turkey, nearly 54,000 died. In Syria, estimates are 6,000 to 9,000 dead.

I remember being struck by one reporter’s comment that more people would die from the cold than being crushed by the earthquake itself.

Citing sources from the United Nations and the World Bank, the Wikipedia article on the earthquake’s impact on Syria has this:

An estimated 5.37 million people across Syria may have been made homeless, while 10.9 million people, nearly half of Syria’s population, were affected. More than 123 residential areas, villages, towns and cities were badly damaged. Many power plants, water facilities, hospitals and public infrastructure also sustained damage. At least 453 schools were damaged. Across the country, 22,452 housing units were destroyed and 62,878 others were damaged.

For many of us, when the fires have died down, when the tremors have stopped, we think the worst is over and move on. Not giving a second thought to the crisis that fellows because it’s easy to take a scary photo of an inferno but it’s hard to take a scary photo of 55,000 dead over 10 years because of microscopic particles.

This is also true for disasters in the church, disasters in the home.

The Good Book has this verse:

Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?

The disaster here is adultery. It does not just destroy the marriage. It destroys the lives of the children, family, friends and the church for generations and generations.

Children should grow up with loving parents. Many do not.

The marriage should grow strong within the church. Many do not. Because church members see marriage as a private matter between husband and wife, never mind that during the wedding, the church declares itself a witness to the vow made before God.

Just something for us to consider: If the California fires are as bad as it is now because of government mismanagement, perhaps the divorce epidemic is as bad as it is now because of the church’s negligence?

There will always be fires, there will always be divorces, but perhaps with proper care, it wouldn’t be this bad.

And just like we see the danger of the fires now but not the danger of the ashes for the next 10 years, we see the danger of adulteries now but are not ready for its impact for ages to come.

People live in the ashes long after the fires have stopped.

When a marriage breaks, how many people are broken?
2? Husband and wife?
10? Children and family?

What about friends and the church? They are broken too.
100?

Try, tens of thousands, even millions. The ashes of burnt down marriages kill off generations after.

Look at where we are.
Millions do not trust the marriage institution.
Millions don’t know what family means.
Millions treat divorce as normal rather than abnormal.
Millions do not see faithfulness that is preached in the church, practiced.
Millions do not see the faithfulness of God because there is no faithfulness in the church.

And if there was no God, there would be no hope for marriage and families. But thanks be to God, through the fire and the ash, Jesus Christ stands strong. In him, we have hope.

This is the Daily Monsoon. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.