Trouble on the horizon

Unless there is inclement weather, my town conducts a severe weather drill, testing their tornado-warning sirens, the first Saturday of every month. On an afternoon with clear blue skies the sound of the sirens is calm and measured. It elicits little response because you know it is just a test.

Yet on a stormy night, the same siren sounds remarkably different. The wail cuts through the dark night sky, screaming for all within earshot to take cover, cautioning there is trouble within the camp.

The same storm front, which brought death and destruction to towns across Tennessee recently, prompted the sharp cry of the sirens across our county, and twice in that same night, I roused our family to huddle—with blankets and pillows—in an interior room, as public safety officials suggest, so as to best weather the storm that was tearing into parts of our county.

The piercing warble of the tornado siren is designed to alarm our very senses. Its undulating and eerie scream demands action.

Likewise the value of Scripture, of biblical instruction, is heightened for us when we are in a crisis situation. Yet most days are clear, with no sign of trouble on the horizon.

In the calm of a Sunday morning, the practicality of Scripture lessons seems terribly distant for many, perhaps even mundane. Yet when we are faced with a calamity, confronting a personal moral failure, or facing a looming threat to our family, we panic if we are not spiritually prepared to handle the danger.

Often it is not until the storms of life threaten us that we realize how unprepared we are. The sirens in our head go off. We allege that God has abandoned us to the elements.

There is wisdom in preparing, getting ready for the real thing. The value of knowing the Word cannot be understated (Matt. 22:29). While we hope and pray that our life will not be turned upside down, it is inevitable that trouble will find us. When that day comes, will we have prepared with purpose to weather the storm? God’s Word, not man’s gibberish, brings us comfort.