Caught Off Guard

When you live on the coast your ears perk up anytime there is mention of a Hurricane or Tropical Storm off the coast. You tend to listen to the weather report a little more often, maybe tune into the local news to see the latest track of Hurricane whoever. It's pretty typical for storms this time of year, that's what happens when you live on the coast.

Last week we were watching Matthew as it was making it's way in the Atlantic. in the beginning of the week it looked as if we could be a target, so we began our customary preps. We took our patio umbrellas down, removed most of the hanging plants and started tidying up a bit. The forecast didn't show anything happening till the weekend, so we figured we had a few days to finish our preparations.

Our local weather guys announced Wednesday that a cold front was moving through and would push the storm away from us. Matthew wasn't going to effect us after all, we were in the clear.

Since the storm was no longer a threat, we went about our normal day to day business, we would finish our preps later, there was no longer any urgency we had a couple of weekends yet to get the summer stuff put away. I really didn't pay any attention to the news anymore, everything seemed good.

Fast forward to Saturday, my husband and i had separate things going on, he was helping a friend with some home repair and I went to an Estate Sale, going about our normal business.

What no one was expecting was the cold front and the tropical storm kind of collided and turned into a Northeaster and it was a doozy. The 1-2 inches of rain that had been forecasted turned into 12 inches and the wind was twice as bad as they thought it would be. Add the factor that we had tow high tides during the storm. Our city had flooding everywhere.

We both got home before the flooding was bad and we didn't have any damage. We had left our car out in the street and it took on some water but it started and will just need some time to dry out. Why didn't we put it in the driveway, because we never expected our street to flood. We lost power for about 12 hours as well and like the car we didn't prepare for that either, all our little devices, like my phone were just about dead when the power went out because I had neglected to charge them. I didn't expect that we would lose power.

I was thinking about this whole event yesterday and how it can have a Spiritual analogy. How often do we get so caught up in the business of today that we forget or neglect the things of the Spirit. Are we living each day as if the Lord could come at anytime or that we could be called home at any moment? Are we preparing for the return of the bridegroom? Are we in prayer for those that may not be Saved (especially those we love) with the urgency that he has called us to have. Are we preparing our hearts daily, are we keeping our focus on Him, looking for his return?

I am guilty of getting caught up in the day to day, of being complacent. Feeling thankful today that he continues to remind me, even with a storm, where my focus needs to be.