Last week, many of us found ourselves watching the news and listening to reports of Hurricane Sandy, a devastating storm.
It’s massive size swept from the Caribbean, up the American east coast and then all the way up to Ontario, leaving dozens dead and devastation beyond imagination. For days, New York City ground to a halt. The Stock Exchange stopped its trading. Thousands of people left town for higher ground.
As Sandy covered the eastern coast of North America it brought floods, heavy rainfall and for those farther west, a lot of snow. Many people spent several days in the dark, without electricity, while other people are trying to pick up their lives.
On the British Columbia coast a few days before, people and light fixtures swayed as an earthquake shook the ground beneath their feet. The question is, how do we react when we find ourselves in the middle of a storm or when the earth shakes beneath our feet?
Whether it’s because of nature or in our every day life, we all face storms. Times where things happen that are simply out of our control.
One of the most common ways we react to such storms is with fear. We hear of Hurricane Sandy and we become afraid. We look at the world economy and our response is one of fear. When someone we know dies, we can be consumed by fear. The thing is, we need to pull back the curtain on fear.
We need to realize that storms may not be an option, but fear is. Fear is an option, not an assignment. And so, since fear is not a required course, we need to make some choices as to how we will react to life’s storms.
The best choice is to choose to trust God. When something comes your way that makes you afraid, make your first choice to trust God. His call to us to have courage is not a call to be naive or ignorant of things happening around us. We are not to be oblivious to the challenges. But rather we are to counter-balance those times of stress with long looks at who God is and what He has done and to find our confidence for living there.
The Bible says we need to pay close attention to what we’ve heard about God so that we don’t drift away, get lost in the storm. What do we know about God? He is good, all the time. He is fair and just. He loves and cares for us more than we can ever know. And when we don’t understand what He is doing, we can be confident that as we trust Him, He will do whatever is best for us every time.
So allow God to be enough in your life. Worry about nature’s storms or other storms in our lives accomplishes nothing. They just cast long shadows over our lives. Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t have legitimate concern for responsibilities. Just don’t subtract God from your present and your future. Don’t erase God from the equation of what is going on in your life right now. He wants you to include Him. He wants to hear about your fears and what you need to make it through. God never promises the absence of distress in your life. But He does promise that if you will trust Him, that you can know His assuring presence... always! He knows what you need.
Remember, storms are not an option... but fear is! Choose to trust the One who is over everything! Do your part, and God will do His.
This column is submitted by Tri-Community Baptist Church in Beiseker.
