Emergency Preparedness

It certainly never crossed my mind that our son would one day go on a hike and never return. And if we were to think about all the disasters and emergencies life might bring our way, we would probably be so paralyzed we would never leave our homes.

But we can do some things to prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually for emergencies. There is a parable in Matthew 7 that most people are familiar with. It basically talks about emergency preparedness. Inevitably a storm will come. And how we have built our spiritual "house" before the emergency will determine how we survive the storm.

That preparation involves daily intake of spiritual food from God's word; not just reading it but doing it - incorporating it into our lives and letting God's word become a rock solid foundation.

For us personally, that meant pretty much a lifetime of walking with God, listening to His Spirit, learning from His Word, putting spiritual principles into practice in our daily lives. And we know that our son John had cultivated this same kind of relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ from the time he was little.

Few of us can expect to go through life without passing through a number of storms, emergencies, trials, tribulations and challenges. But we can be prepared to go through them holding unto the hand of our Lord and master, Jesus, as He guides us, protects us, enables us and comforts us.

Isaiah 40, verses 29-31 says, "He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

Read more about our emergency when our son was lost on a hike in our new book Aloha is Forever

What is your first thought when faced with an emergency? Do you panic? Do you call a friend? Do you scream? Do you faint? Do you ignore the danger and put your head in the sand (figuratively)?

I've probably done all of these at one time or another with the exception of screaming and/or fainting.

But the most effective strategy I've found is prayer. It was the first thing my husband and I did when we found out that our son had not returned from the hike he started on Thanksgiving Day 1999. We prayed together - to find out what we prayed and how God answered you'll have to get our book, Aloha is Forever.

Besides praying together, we also enlisted close friends to help us pray. We believe that God is serious about His promises to answer prayer when two or three of us agree (Matthew 18:19). And God has limited His own authority to interfere in man's affairs and has given that authority back to man to ask Him to interfere. It's a great mystery how this works.

After the first day or two had passed, still with no word of our son's whereabouts, we asked many others to pray for him. The power of the internet took over and friends passed our requests for prayer to other friends until literally thousands of people were joining in prayer. And we were receiving messages from many people we had never even met telling us they were praying.

On Wednesday after Thanksgiving, we also began a fast. I don't say that to brag, but rather to show the power of this tool that few Christians know how to utilize effectively. There are many kinds of fasts, but we undertook a total fast at first, drinking only water because of the seriousness of the emergency we were facing. Later we switched to juice and water, most often using a juicer to make our own fresh juice. I can't emphasize enough the power of that fast. It empowered us and kept us focused and calm during the most devastating storm we had ever faced in our lives.

I'm sure you could add other tips on how to survive an emergency from a spiritual perspective so I invite your comments.

As I have observed people and personally listened to hundreds of stories of tragic, devastating, heartbreaking situations involving everything from emergency situations to ongoing abusive situations to natural disasters to man made emergency disasters, I have contemplated what a person must have to survive and come out victorious and a better person as a result. I certainly make no claim to having all the answers, but I would like to share my observations.

First of all, there is much to be said for mindset. In fact, the Bible tells us in Philippians that we are to think on whatever is noble, right, pure, good, etc. I believe we are exhorted to do this because every action begins with a thought. Since our reactions are even more automatic, we can be sure that our reactions also are a reflection of the things we spend time thinking about. So if we apply this principle to our reactions in times of emergency or devastation of any kind, we can be pretty confident that we will reap in our reactions, those things we have sown in our thoughts. And even though we will never be immune to those circumstances and situations that bring devastation to us in some form or another, we can develop through our thought life, an immunity to suffering as a result of them. We can develop immunity to the "poor me" syndrome, the "no one has it as bad as me" syndrome and the "my life has been ruined" syndrome. In other words, we can and should prepare ourselves spiritually to survive and thrive through any and all of the life emergencies that come our way.

Another component of this, I believe, is the ability to trust a just God in an unjust world. That is the subtitle of Craig Hill's new book, If God is in Control, Then Why...? I'm convinced that trusting Him stems first of all from an intimate and personal relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. But it also involves spending enough time hearing, reading, studying, memorizing and applying His word, the Bible to our daily lives. It's like taking a daily dose of vaccine against lives trials and tribulations that will carry us through those valley times and keep our feet solidly upon the rock.

Another component, I believe, is having developed significant and helpful relationships with friends who can help and support you during the difficult times. They should be friends who are like-minded. In other words, if you are Job, going through a trial, you don't need friends like he had! They must be friends who will pull you up, not tear you down. You need friends who can support and strengthen you, ones who will pray for you and with you during the difficult times. They can turn into life-lines in a very real and practical way.

I hope these thoughts will be helpful to you if you are trying to survive an emergency or a trial. And may you be a true overcomer, one who survives and thrives no matter what comes your way.