Get your priorities straight!
After more than two feet of snow blanketed the Washington, DC metropolis in the past two days, closing roads and temperatures plummeting to the teens, I begin to wonder why we humans think we are in control of our world. If this snowstorm had continued for ten days, the whole area would have been buried. No amount of technology, military might, or money could have stopped the snow. In the insurance industry, they call such incidents acts of God.
A little over a month ago, Port- au -Prince in Haiti was bustling with life. College professors, bankers, students, United Nations workers and people from all works of life all had plans for their future. Some students looked forward to their graduation, engaged couples anticipated their wedding, and some workers looked forward to their raise. But all that changed at 4:53 p.m. on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 when a catastrophic earthquake hit twelve miles from the city. It shattered dreams, lives and buildings. Even the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince perished in the quake.
Today as we run around in our busy schedules, we should know that we are not in charge. All our plans, our careful diet, our money, our secured jobs, our cars, our houses, our positions will not mean a thing when disaster strikes. Once a person is diagnosed with a terminal disease they lose control. They now have to depend on their doctors for help.
To make it in this crazy world where situations change all the time, the best defense is to live a balanced life. We have to make time for God, family and then the job. Anyone who thinks that the job should take precedence in their lives in front of God and family should think again. Without God we will not have the strength or even life to get up in the morning and go to work. And while jobs come and go, the family, especially our children, will always be ours.
So do you think you are in charge? Think again. Your life is governed by circumstances that you cannot control. While you need to plan and implement those plans, like the song says, we have to take life one day at a time, knowing that tomorrow is a promise, yesterday is gone, but today is a clean slate.
