“How To Prepare For The Storms”

Who can predict the future …..  the weatherman, your stockbroker, political figures???  Hmmmm….. I think we know the answer to that. Occasionally we can get it right…”even a broken clock is right twice a day”, but often we are surprised by what’s happening.    

I’ve always been somewhat of an analyst, trying to figure out and prepare for what’s coming next. I’ve put together a number of Long Range Plans during my business career and then in my many years at Koinonia Academy and the People of Hope….. trying to articulate goals and objectives and then planning how to achieve these goals.

Being prepared is a good thing. We all need to try to be ready for what’s coming down the pike…. trying to take care of our family, preparing for retirement, and of course preparing for life after death. Yet even the best of “planners & preparers” don’t get it right much of the time. This can cause some of us to be nervous….. at least it has caused me to be nervous at times. Who’s not at least a little bit nervous about our current world situation? So, what should we do?

St. Augustine said to “pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” There’s a lot of truth in that statement, and it’s a pretty good approach. Yet, I think there’s more to be said.

Life is not some experiment being conducted in the laboratory, under a controlled environment. Life is a small boat on the ocean in the midst of a hurricane. Sure we need to “row & bail”, but we really need the Lord to be in the boat with us… the Lord who can calm the stormy seas. 

We must trust the Lord and ask him to help us do our part when the calm sea gets rough. The Little Flower said “one receives the grace and strength one needs from God at every moment…God gives me courage in proportion to my sufferings… if my sufferings increase, he will at the same time increase my courage”. (St. Therese of Lisieux)  

In the midst of our suffering, in the trials of life, we can often see our weaknesses and our lack of holiness.  “Our sense of not being holy or pure enough…this is something all saints feel—and all the non-saints like us.. yet this awareness should make us focus on God, his mercy, his work in us, and not on ourselves. The saints knew that their weakness drew Jesus to them….calling them to take one step at a time, holding onto him.” (Sr. Mary Totah, Magnificat, 5-26-22) 

Today the seas are getting rough, the waves are crashing over the sides of our boat… so we need to prepare as best we can, do our part, do our planning, pray…. but most of all we need to be quick to call on the Lord. We need to ask him to calm the seas. We need to remember that we are in the boat together and it’s not going down as long as the Lord is at the helm. And that is very good news.