The Ad Council and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) unveiled a campaign in 2013 with the motto, “You never know when the day before is the day before.”
I could speak on that topic for hours. Most of us can look back on a painful event or a defining moment.
It came without warning and wreaked emotional havoc when it caught us off guard and unprepared. A diagnosis, an accident, a loss, a natural disaster – ill-timed and beyond our control. It did to our world as the “great fall” did to Humpty Dumpty.
The nursery rhyme concludes, “And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.” I would add: at least, not in the same way.
Remember the television game show, Let’s Make a Deal?
The audience dressed themselves in outrageous costumes vying for the opportunity to compete for valuable prizes.
Those lucky enough to move from spectator to contestant were presented several “deal” options by host Monty Hall.
Often an eager contestant had his hopes dashed by a “Zonk,” a deal that turned out not to be a good deal at all.
A curtain would open to reveal some undesirable prize like a pet mule or a rusty rowboat instead of a dream vacation or a new car.
The humor was lost on me. It was too much like real life.
In a philosophical reflection on New Year’s Eve, many of us spend a few soul searching moments looking back on the year, remembering the good times as well as the difficult ones, totaling up our lessons learned and making note of those events that have altered our lives forever, at least on this side of eternity. By this late date,
I have sung many a chorus of Auld Lang Syne and grown teary every time.
I start to really miss my mother and daddy and those mentors – like my friend Jan or my best friend’s mother, Mary - who are no longer here.
Something about turning that last page on the calendar brings to mind a mental in-living-color replay of my entire past as well as a brutal reminder that time does indeed fly and that the future is in so many ways a forever mystery.
I do think one of God’s most gracious gifts to us is that
He doesn’t reveal what’s just around the bend in our personal lives. I dare say it was because we would miss the joy of the present by dreading the “thing” that was going to happen tomorrow. Instead he gave us the certain promise that
He will be there, that He will go even as far as the “Valley of the Shadow of Death” (Psalm 23) to give us exactly what we need in that critical moment we cannot control.
I have frequently given a talk called “My Backdoor Lessons,” and it involves five principles that I learned through the school of hard knocks!
The fifth one is likely the most important. It is to prepare for the storms of life before they happen.
On January 15, 2009, when the US Airways jet splash landed in the Hudson River with no loss of life Captain “Sully” Sullenberger was an instant American hero.
The comments we heard from his wife and friends over the next few weeks revealed a man who had been a hero in their eyes for a long time.
No matter how many times he was interviewed or praised by the media, he was ever the grateful, humble, and gallant leader who gave credit to his entire crew saying over and over, “I was just doing what I had been taught to do.”
Sully had been flying aircraft for more than thirty years.
I am sure he had persevered through his share of very boring training drills designed to prepare him for the unexpected life and death crisis.
But how many routine flights had he made in his career where no special courage or skill was demanded:
He might have retired without ever having had to deal with even one tense moment in the air.
Would it have still been worth it to put in all the time and effort to prepare for something he wasn’t even sure would ever happen?
One thing is certain. It would have been too late to read the chapter on disaster management in the flurry of bird feathers heading straight for Flight 1549.
He had been faithful to what was in front of him day by day, and in the moment when it really mattered most, it was second nature to him to do exactly the right thing.
The New Year is out there before us all – a blank page, a question mark. Be faithful to the task at hand. Love the Lord, and love other people. That is the very best place to begin.
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
