Last Thursday afternoon, the ground shook under my feet while I was
walking to class. The strange thing was that I didn't even notice it.
What I did notice were the people that started pouring out of class room
buildings. Students and professors were milling around wondering what
to do. An earthquake, the first one in 70 years, had just shaken us all
out of a normal day. The epicenter was was in a little town west of
Richmond but the effects were felt for hundreds of miles. Even though
there was no wide spread death and destruction, the earthquake did serve
as a reminder that bad stuff happens (which I knew) and bad stuff can
happen to me (which don't like to think about).
So, for
a moment, I was faced with the thought of being in a building that is
shaking. I was surrounded by people who couldn't stop talking about the
windows rattling and the floor moving--I walked away quickly to put
their tales out of mind. After all, the shaking had only lasted for 45
seconds and nobody on campus was hurt. But then the very next day CNN
started gearing me up for Hurricane Irene. The issue here was that since
we own a home in a beachfront community and the hurricane was fast
approaching the coast of North Carolina there was a real chance that our
house could be flooded or worse, blown away. -Bad stuff happens and
bad stuff could happen to me.
As it happened, Irene chose
to come ashore about sixty miles north of our little town of Kure Beach.
There were over 1100 homes destroyed or severely damaged along the
Outer Banks of North Carolina, the cost of clean up and restoring roads
and bridges is likely to be over 70 million dollars. As I read these
statistics, I was so thankful that Irene chose another path. But that
didn't feel right. I am thankful that I dodged the bullet that hit a
thousand other people. Where is the compassion in that??!!!!
So, now I'm grappling with--how to live by faith and at the same time realize that bad stuff does happen. Despite what I tell myself on a regular basis, I know that even with regular exercise and eating right people still get heart disease and cancer. Even good God-fearing believers can get struck by lightening or get hit by a car. Bad stuff still happens and can happen to me.
So why go through the trouble of trying to live a disciplined life or a spirt-led life or even a moral life when hurricanes and earthquakes happen along with diseases and accidents. Well, my answer is that the practice of disciplining my behavior helps me in disciplining my mind. Having a disciplined mind, in my view, is the most important thing because when bad things happen I will always have a choice about how to react to them. I don't have to join the throngs of people fearful about the economy or afraid of the next hurricane (Katia is now forming off the west coast of Africa) or terrified of loosing my home.
The ability to cultivate a peaceful mind even in the face of a catastrophe or in the midst of a disaster is what I believe is the highest form of faith and devotion and it requires practice. So, while my green smoothie*, may not look like the most appetizing breakfast, in addition to great nutrition, it is also helping me prepare for hurricane season.
*For more information on green smoothies- see "Sites we like" at this blog OR check out my favorite recipes at the S&F website.
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