Be Prepared for the Storm

"Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest--I would flee far away and stay in the desert; (Selah) I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm."  Psalm 55:6-8

I fell asleep during the worship music, as I generally do most mornings. This morning I had a dream, hoever. I don't believe that this is some big prophetic dream because I can connect real-world events to it, but it made me think.

In this dream, a storm was coming. It was going to be some combination of hurricane, tornado, and snow storm. Everyone knew it was going to be bad, but no one was really worried. They all underestimated it. But I knew how bad it could be. I sent out messages urging people to find low-lying shelter. I was at my parents house (I had slept over) and as I was sending out these messages I suddenly realized that I didn't have any plans for myself, and I live on the 4th floor of a building. Just then I heard my parents talking upstairs--my step-dad had just come in from shoveling and had news for me. My mom sent him downstairs, and he said "Ok, do you want the gloves to come off, and I'll just tell you how it is?" And I was just about to answer "yes" when I woke up.

Interesting, right? Like I said earlier, I don't feel that this is some prophetic omen of a disastrous storm coming to destroy Chicago. I'm well aware of the clues that this was mainly my mind just processing things. But I was intrigued by the idea of preparing for a storm.

How do we prepare for hard times? Do we save up money, stock up on bread and milk? Do we have escape routes from our homes? Are we prepared for losing our loved ones, our jobs? Getting sick? Getting hurt?

I'll tell you right now I think my answer to all of those is no. I suppose my desire would be to fly away from the storm, like the psalmist. But that's not really an answer to every situation. Sometimes we do need to flee a situation, don't we, like an unhealthy relationship. But other times we are called to stand firm, to withstand the buffeting winds and rain, and when we can do no more, to keep standing.

Are you prepared to do that? If we take the gloves off and really look into the situation, are you prepared to deal with it?

Lord, help me to be prepared. Whether good or ill, the events of life will happen. Help me to be ready for all those things. Amen.