Preparing for the Unexpected pt 2
When I wrote the first part to “Preparing for the Unexpected”, I had no idea that the worst disaster in Australian history was about to unfold less than an hour from my home.
No-one did.
Record high temperatures (47C/117F), gale force winds, and 10 years of drought combined to create a deadly fire that swooped down on country towns to the north and east of Melbourne engulfing just about everything in its path.
My son left one of those towns minutes before the fire arrived. Everything felt normal as he rode out. No-one had any sense that death was just minutes away. The unexpected happened so quickly that the best laid fire plans and provisions were, in so many cases, useless.
Can you prepare for this kind of ‘Unexpected’?
The unexpected regularly confronts us all. Usually it’s something less dramatic than our recent fires. It could be something as simple as a small delay in a flight departure or a friend popping in just as you were about to get some housework done. It could be a more major event like the cancellation of a holiday because of sickness, or the sudden death of a parent.
Things like insurance, fire plans and wise investing are all able to cushion us from the impact of some of the more major unexpected events of life. They have the potential to avert a worse disaster and provide something toward rebuilding physical things that have been lost.
However, no matter how good our physical preparations for the unexpected, there is a more significant preparation that will help us no matter what the unexpected event.
Have you ever been driving toward a car parking space and had someone beat you to it? Have you ever had someone cut into your lane as if you weren’t there? Has your child dropped and broken one of your best dishes? Have you ever walked into the kitchen just in time to see the last spoonful of that leftover delicacy that you were looking forward to eating disappear into your husband’s mouth?
These too are all unexpected events in our lives. They are the little things that happen almost daily. But it’s amazing how unprepared many of us are to deal with such events.
What is it that rises up in most people when someone takes ‘your’ car space or dangerously cuts into your lane? Just what comes out of most of our mouths when our favourite dish is broken by our child? What is our reaction when our husband ‘steals’ the food we were looking forward to?
You see, the condition of our heart is really what determines our preparedness for the unexpected. Yes, physical preparations for the rarer, more dramatic unexpected events can be wise. But the most common unexpected events that we are all faced with are the ‘little ones’, the ones that very quickly reveal what is in our hearts.
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”. Matt 12:34
It isn’t what goes into the mouth that defiles a man. It’s what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man.” Matt 15:11
When faced with those ‘little’ unexpected events of life, our heart is quickly revealed. If frustration, anger, intolerance, impatience, pride etc still have a major role in our heart, then that is what will come out of our mouth.
If we have allowed God to deal with our heart over the years, then the evidence of that will be that less sin springs from our mouth in response to our daily irritations and more grace will emerge - even when the other person is wrong.
As we grow in this ability to give grace, our lives will benefit in other ways too. We will live with a greater peace. We will have more confidence in God’s ability to take care of the big and the small things in our lives. People will notice we don’t get flustered like we used to. When once our children would brace themselves for our angry response, they will be blessed to find they no longer need to do that. Our husbands will find us more endearing and even easier to love!
Also, when our heart is prepared to deal in a God honouring way with the little unexpected events of life, then we are also much better prepared to deal with the major events that occur.
Oh. We had something unexpected happen yesterday. We heard our cat squawk loudly from under a chair and quickly dashed to her aid, expecting she had been injured in some way. Instead, we found she had just given birth to the first of three kittens.
We were totally unprepared!