We're in waiting mode right now in the Philippines. There is another super storm coming our way, not as strong as Haiyan, but still strong! The thing is - it's really slow. It's big, strong, but slow, moving around 10kph if I'm not mistaken. So for the past days they have been reporting when the storm is coming, how strong it is, where it will make landfall, and what we have to prepare. The scope of the storm is so big that even if it does not make a direct hit here in Bacolod, where I live, for sure it will still bring a lot of rains and gusty winds.
Because we are all anxiously waiting for this storm, and are not really sure how strong it will be, we are already making some decisions that do not seem to be right. For example yesterday, Friday, many schools decided to suspend classes. My son in high school was made to go home earlier than the usual 5pm dismissal. Even in our church we decided to cancel fellowship gatherings Friday night, again not knowing whether we would start feeling the effect of the storm or not.
Not that we, or the schools, made the wrong decisions. With how big the storm looks in the satellite images being flashed on television and social sites it is hard to tell when it will really hit and how strong it will be, and so we needed to be careful. There are also some panic-buying that is happening knowing that the possibility of brownouts are there. Should we be panicking?
Deep inside though I am sure that all of us know that we have no control whatsoever with this storm. How it will hit, when it will hit, what the effects will be we really have no idea. And so we really just need to trust in the Lord to take care of us, no matter what will come to pass. Even with all the news and reports coming our way, and even with all the satellite images being flashed that gives us an idea of how, when and where about the storm, we still don't really know what is going to happen.
It's a perfect scenario for full trust in our Lord. As much as we want to be in control over events in our life, we don't. There's nowhere else to go, nowhere else to turn, except to the sovereign Creator of our world and universe.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
It's the same scenario with the little storms that we face everyday in our life. We all have circumstances, problems, needs that overwhelm us. Many times they are as big as a super typhoon, and we all come out with our own "satellite images" of how big, how vast our situation is, and many times we make forecasts that cause us to panic, moving us to make decisions that sometimes are good, but often times, because of panic, turn out to be the wrong ones.
Just as we leave the forecasts of storms to weather experts and forecasters, we must also try not to make forecasts of our own with regards to our own circumstances and leave it with the "expert" - the One who created us and who knows us, and has actually written our lives already.
Psalms 139:16 (NIV)
16 ...All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Imagine, our God has already written all our days in His book, even while we were still in our mother's womb! We have no idea what our tomorrow, or even the next minute of our life will be! But He knows. When you think about it, He is the only one we can trust in, should trust in.
So the next time we are tempted to come up with our own "satellite images" of our circumstances and make forecasts concerning them, let's come to our Creator, our God, and trust in Him with all our hearts, not leaning on our own understanding. Let us acknowledge that He is with us, that He is sovereign over every circumstance of our life, good or bad, and He will set our paths straight.
