Be Prepared
So Cyclone Yasi has passed with few fatalities and no serious injury but with enough destruction to let us know how lucky we were…but was it luck or good management. Perhaps both but certainly plenty of the latter. When we see seriously ill patients lined up in an orderly manner in Cairns airport, hear of hundreds of southern SES workers flying in to relieve their northern counterparts, even hear that the wheelie bins can go out in Cairns two days after the cyclone passed, we know that a lot of thought and planning has taken place. One of my brothers, a manager in a major utility, tells me they have long tedious meetings where responses to different crises are explored. How grateful we should be for that largely unknown, unsung public service.
In our daily life, we can learn from this response. So often in the Gospel, Jesus calls on us to consider the direction of our lives and the consequences of the decisions we make. God does not want us to drift through life without assessing the quality of our actions. It is no good waiting for the crisis to decide how you will respond. How we chose to live and love in ordinary circumstances will show when the crisis comes. Let us take some time this week to consider the direction of our lives, and ask God what we can do to live more fully and to love each other more dearly.
Loving God, we ask you to be close to all who have been affected by recent disasters. May your Spirit give them strength and courage and may we all be guided to live and love like Jesus our brother. We ask this in his name, confident that you will hear us.