The photo to the right was taken not far from my home near the bottomlands of the Missouri River. The sign is absolutely correct, as several times a year the rain, the river and the nearby creeks combine to saturate the fields and overflow the road — a perfect storm of natural events that creates something that no one control. You just have to be prepared to accept the inevitable and take another route for a while.
Inevitable events are the ghosts of our lives. They linger in the back of our minds and come out once in a while to haunt our dreams and bring worry to our waking lives. Parents get older and die. Loved ones suffer in a myriad of ways. We face our own life challenges and — in one way or another — stare down our own mortality. Life’s changes and storms are inevitable, so the challenge of our faith is to be prepared when they come, to be spiritually strong so that our first response is not to throw up our arms in exasperation but rather to throw ourselves into the arms of God, the unchanging changer who stands solid at the center of our ever-changing lives.
Ask yourself in silence: Am I spiritually prepared for the inevitable events of my life? Am I building a faith and a relationship with God now, so that’s it’s ready when I need it most?