THE COMING WINTER

One day, I began to think about where we're going as a culture and what the implications are. What if our culture really did keep getting worse? I decided that, if things did keep getting worse, one day something really bad was going to happen; maybe another depression or some type of civil unrest. Whatever the bad thing was, I began to realize that I wasn't really prepared for it. I thought about my wife and my children and about how God has given them to me to care for and protect. I decided that I wanted to begin taking steps to make sure that if something did happen I wouldn't be taken completely by surprise and that I would be able to take care of my family and help others. I didn't want to be the one desperately seeking aid myself. So, I started studying disasters. I decided to look back at the history of things that have happened to our country and other societies and look for any recurring "disastrous" events. I then began to put together a pragmatic list of items and skills that I would personally like to have if one of those events happened to us. What I found surprised me a little; history apparently repeats itself (I was already supposed to know that). My family and I have a strong faith in God. I know that He is sovereign and that He is ultimately responsible for my wellbeing. However, I do not believe that He wants me to sit idly by and simply say, "Whatever happens will happen because it is His will." I know that the Bible says, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away," but He gives me common sense for a reason. If a hurricane is coming, I don't pray that He keeps my windows from being blown out and then do nothing, I go out and buy plywood to board them up. If there is a winter storm forecast, I don't pray that He keeps me warm and then do nothing, I make sure that I have emergency heating. If I decide that one day I will be too old and frail to work I don't pray that He'll take care of me and then do nothing, I try to save something for my retirement years. I trust that God is in control of everything but I don't believe that he wants me to do nothing. God's sovereignty does not negate my responsibility to act prudently. I am the steward of the family, home, and resources that He has blessed me with and it is my responsibility to do everything in my power to care for and protect all that I have using the common sense He has given me. Throughout history, there have been certain events like wars, depressions, civil unrest, oppression, and natural disasters that occur quite often. The people who managed to make it through these events had one main characteristic in common; they were prepared for the event. They were not prepared in the sense that they had stockpiled items that were needed but were prepared in the sense that they had some attribute lacking by others. While some of these who were prepared did have access to certain resources that helped them, a majority of the people who lived through these difficult times did not. The area of preparedness most common to those who were not overwhelmed by a catastrophic event was in the area of mental preparedness. These people either recognized that something bad was about to happen and were not taken by surprise when it did or they had the ability to adapt to the new conditions they were faced with. Tangible items were not the most important things to the people who made it. The most important things were the intangibles like faith, family, awareness, and adaptability. So, with my new-found knowledge, my wife and I embarked on a crusade to prepare our family. We began to talk about the different things that could happen and whether we had what we needed if we were hit with our own hurricane Katrina or Great Depression. I read books and blogs on the subject of preparedness and was soon overwhelmed with all of the "end of the world as we know it" gloom and doom. Granted, I think things could get bad, but I don't really foresee a future filled with zombies and government drones trying to take me out with a missile. I just wanted to be ready for a natural disaster or a period of civil uncertainty in event of a war or other mishap. I wanted a common-sense approach to realistic scenarios.