"A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." (Prov. 22:3)
"Those who fear the Lord are secure; He will be a place of refuge for their children." (Prov. 14:26 NLT)
Several months ago I connected with a website that helps with disaster preparedness. Later I realized that the very helpful, perky young women on the site were probably members of the Mormon church. And that got me thinking.
What if there really was a disaster or series of disasters? Who would help hurting people? Would the local Christian church be prepared to reach out in love with food, water, shelter, medicine, resources, etc. if there was some type of major event?
And what would our witness be to the community? Because I believe there are major theological problems with the Mormon faith, I do not want pre-believers being led astray while the real Church is trapped in unpreparedness, indecision, infighting, or a myriad of other things.
And for the real Church to be prepared, we have to have our financial houses in order - both our corporate church and individual family houses - so that we have resources to give. We need to have our priorities of time and talents and treasure (even non-monetary) set according to God's principles. And we need to be prepared to extend grace and love no matter what - even during and after a disaster.
How do we do this? I'm not sure exactly. I do think any step in the direction of being prepared is better than sitting in a feeling of frustration or helplessness - or just being lazy. But I think that the Kingdom benefits of being prepared to minister to people - especially pre-believers - are huge. If disaster victims know "know we are Christians by our love" we can help fight back the forces of fear, confusion, despair, loss, and (especially) spiritual darkness.
Proverbs 11:24 says "It is possible to give freely and become more wealthy..."
May our love and grace - and our material preparedness - help us to give freely to a world being suffocated by darkness. May our love freely given come back to us pushed down, running over, and enriching us.
God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, who knows the hairs on our heads, and the numbers of our days, teach us to make our days count as we walk this earth. Help us to know your wisdom and your plans for our future with hope. Help us to be prepared without hoarding, to live as good stewards of our resources, and to honor you with our actions, words, and thoughts. May the Light of your Church shine brightly as you call all people unto yourself. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
from "Live Like We're Dying"
by Mark Sheehan and Danny O'Donoghue of The Script/recorded by Kris Allen
You never know a good thing till it's gone
You never see a crash till it's head on
Why do we think we're right when we're dead wrong
You never know a good thing till it's gone
Yeah, we gotta start
Looking at the hands of the time we've been given
If this is all we got and we gotta start thinking
If every second counts on a clock that's ticking
Gotta live like we're dying
We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or to throw it all away
We gotta tell them that we love them
While we got the chance to say
Gotta live like we're dying
You never see a crash till it's head on
Why do we think we're right when we're dead wrong
You never know a good thing till it's gone
Yeah, we gotta start
Looking at the hands of the time we've been given
If this is all we got and we gotta start thinking
If every second counts on a clock that's ticking
Gotta live like we're dying
We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or to throw it all away
We gotta tell them that we love them
While we got the chance to say
Gotta live like we're dying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbfeSImDntw
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