Before and After the storm

Before a hurricane watch or warning is sounded in your area, prepare!

The previous post gave tips and reminders on preparing for a hurricane, so I pray you already have all you need to hunker down and wait it out – unless you’re in an evacuation area, in which case, evacuate! Storm surges and floods have the strength to wipe out buildings and bridges, and people are no exception.

Unlike most storms, hurricanes are not usually fast-moving. Some may make their presence known for days! Regardless of the length of time a storm hangs around, stay indoors until the wind subsides enough to be outside with no possibility of a sudden gust knocking you over or hurtling pine cones and debris at you like missiles.

Some ABC’s for after a storm:

• Assess any damages you’ve sustained.

• Be careful of downed wires, standing water, and damaged dwellings.

• Conserve bottled water, especially if told to boil tap water before using.

• Dial your radio to local news for storm assessments of your area.

• Encourage friends and family by letting them know how you are.

• Find out what damages need documenting and reporting to utility and insurance companies.

• Go help neighbors who have more than they can handle.

• Have a meal in mind before quickly opening the frig or freezer.

• If the threat of floods or storm surges caused you to evacuate, don’t go back until local authorities say it's okay.

• Just remember: Nothing is impossible with God! Everything IS possible.

• Keep on praying.

• Let go of anger, worries, blame, and regrets by giving them to God.

• Make today your focus.

• Notice what you CAN do, then do it!

• Observe the overall situation as realistically as possible.

• Pray, listen, and arrange priorities according to God's priorities for you.

• Quit thinking unhelpful thoughts such as “Why?” or “If only….”

• Remain as low-key as you can around kids, but be truthful.

• Sacrifice praise to God.

• Thank God for every good thing that comes to your mind.

• Understand this is trauma! Do unto yourself as you'd do unto others.

• Verify each loss or damage with lists and photographs.

• Work as you're able to improve conditions around you.

• X each chore off your list to remind yourself that things do get better.

• Yes! You will get through this, and maybe even help others too.

• Zip valuables and paper in plastic before the storm begins. Someday this aftermath will end and new hopes and plans get started.


Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

…

Preparing for my umpteenth hurricane

At this writing, a Category 5 hurricane has aimed its entire force toward Florida, so we’ve been making preparations all week. This isn’t new for us. We’ve weathered so many hurricanes – from Camille in Biloxi to Matthew in Florida - I’ve actually lost count.

This time, though, my husband and I live in a 112-year-old house. Since a huge magnolia tree resides outside our bedroom window, we may need to sleep in our basement – a rare space in Florida, but I'm grateful we have one. Getting it and everything else ready, however, takes time, planning, and experiences, such as brushing my teeth with Pepsi, that have helped me know what tips to share! For instance:

If you’re in the path of Irma or any other storm, remove and store away lawn furniture, yard toys, garbage cans, and other outside items as soon as possible. Left outdoors these will become projectiles, hurling through space and into a roof or window. Also:

• Keep your prescriptions filled and medications with you.

• Keep a list of important phone numbers with you, including business cards from your insurance agent and others you may need to contact.

• Keep important papers and photos with you. You might also scan these and save to Google Photos. If you have a lot of photographs or scanned files, this will take a while. (My 3,000 photos took 3 days to upload.)

• Pack an overnight bag or large purse with the above items and plenty of cash in small bills. If the electricity goes out, stores won’t be able to swipe your bank or credit cards.

• Have at least a couple of jugs of water per person. This is crucial if you have an electric-powered well pump or if you live in a flood zone where water supplies will likely be contaminated.

• Pack your freezer with fresh water frozen in various sizes of containers. These blocks of ice take longer to melt than those bags of ice you probably won’t be able to find anyway. The freezer section of a fairly new refrigerator will usually stay cold longer than most coolers, plus water from home is safer to drink than melted ice from a bag.

• Stock up on canned goods, fruit, bread, and other foods that don’t require refrigeration.

• Cook up meat in your freezer, then refreeze meal portions that can be eaten if merely thawed.

• Have a battery-operated radio on hand. This is vital, so you can keep up with the storm’s progress, find out where to go in an emergency, and stay informed about conditions in your area.

• Stock up on flashlights and batteries of the correct size.

• Top off your gas tank. If electricity goes out, pumps can’t operate. Also, it may be a while after a big storm before gas supplies return.

• Back up your computer files. A flash drive will do, but I loaded my Word files onto OneDrive and Google Docs.

• Fill large pots and pans with water and cover. You might need this water to flush a toilet, wash up, and, yes, brush your teeth.

• Have a bag of charcoal and/or a filled container for a gas grill to use for cooking or making coffee. After several hurricanes with no coffee for days, we got a stainless steel coffee pot for campfire use – best coffee I’ve ever had!

Most of all, pray! Thank God for being with you. Let your family and friends know where you’ll be, and stay safe.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

If you have other suggestions, please add them in the Comments section below. Thanks and blessings.

…

A time to write and a time to be a sponge

When I asked a group of Christian poets and writers what one thing they need most in their writing lives, a common response was “time!”

The King James Version (KJV) of Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven,” and then that entire chapter goes on to put all sorts of usages of time into perspective.

As poets and writers in Christ, we also need to know, there’s a time to pray and a time to listen…

• A time to read and a time to study

• A time to revise and a time to edit

• A time to soak up everything around us

• A time to write again.

Keeping a notebook or laptop handy can help even snatches of time become productive. For instance, when I wrote inspirational romance novels, I worked out my best dialogue while hanging clothes on the line. Now, my best poems usually come when I’m watching wildlife from our deck, whereas insights for devotionals often arise after discussing the Bible with Christian friends. The important step then is:

Take a sec to write it down before that inspired word is forgotten!

These little writing times might not multiply quickly, but they do add up! For instance, commuting to work can be a good time to work out a plot or record notes about a new project. Washing dishes might provide time to ask, “What do I feel drawn to write?” then listening to the answer that fills us with the most enthusiasm, so we can hardly wait to get to it.

Interruptions can produce insights too, though, for, in God, no time is wasted. If words seem to plod along, it just might be time to take a break, elevate those tired feet, and get refreshed enough to write again.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

…

Leaving every stone unturned to bread

As my Bible Study group discussed Luke 4, we read about the temptations Jesus endured in the wilderness. Significantly, those tests of faith came immediately after His baptism in the Jordan River and immediately before His ministry began.

Each of those tests ultimately tempted Jesus to do something to stop the crucifixion – the final sacrifice to undo the works of the devil and remove every trace of sin inherent in every race of people. But the temptations began on a very human level of weakness – hunger.

After fasting for 40 days, Jesus became so close to starvation that Satan tried to take advantage of this weakened state. In the first temptation, he challenged Jesus by saying, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread,” Luke 4:3, English Standard Version (ESV.)

For one thing, if Jesus had done that, He would have been trying to prove Himself – something God doesn’t do throughout scripture. (See Exodus 3:14.)

For another, if Jesus had given in to hunger and temptation, the results would have been magic or sorcery, rather than the power of God.

Later, when the Lord turned water into wine and fed many thousands with a few little fish and a small amount of bread, He used what was there to perform, not magic, but miracles! He took something natural and real and expanded its potential – something we might pray for at every church picnic or potluck when we have less food than people!

Jesus wants us to reach out to others and feed His sheep without holding back in fear or stinginess, but He would never, ever tempt us to turn stones into bread! Why?

It would be a lie.

In the desert terrain where the temptations occurred, an abundance of wind-smoothed, rounded stones actually look like big loaves of bread. But rocks were not meant to be eaten. To make bread from stones means totally changing what something was meant to be into something that’s untrue to itself and to God’s creation.

Bread is what it is. We are who we are.

May we become our most genuine and truest selves in our lives in Christ.

May we become all God created us to be in The Way and Truth of Jesus’ Name.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

…

Write with salt, not sugar

Chemically speaking, various salts can be formed by combining a base with an acid. For example, common table salt (NaCl) consists of sodium chloride with neither element something you’d ever want to eat by itself!

There’s nothing sweet or saccharine about salt.

There’s nothing flowery in its inorganic matter.

Although people and animals must have some salt to survive, too much of this essential mineral tastes like ocean water or brine, which can make us gag!

Cliché though it is, a little salt goes a long way.

In light of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13, however, that cliché brings hope. Figuratively speaking, the Lord said we’re to be the “salt of the earth,” a concise way of defining how we're to be, speak, act, and write effectively.

We might not feel as though we’re being effective or making any difference, but as we interact with the world through Christ-centered words, actions, and prayers, even a little saltiness goes a long way.

To get some ideas of how to sprinkle salt into our relationships and writings, let’s consider some of the power salt has:

Salt kills weeds.
The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur with nothing sprouting and no vegetation on it, Deuteronomy 29:23.

Purifies water
Then he (Elisha) went to the spring, threw salt into it, and said, This is what the Lord says: “I’ve healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land barren,” 2 Kings 2:21.

Adds flavor and seasoning
Is tasteless food eaten without salt? Job 6:6.

Salt also has the power to:

Keep food from spoiling.

Draw out infection.

Melt ice.

Those factual aspects and properties of salt gives us a few of its literal meanings, but sometimes we understand more by speaking or writing figuratively. That’s what Jesus did by calling us the “salt of the earth,” and what I aimed for in the following poem from my book, Outside Eden, published by Kelsay Books:

Shaking Salt

We want
We taste
We crave this old
enhancing

Thirsty
Body cells
Electrical charges

never brackish

Our pores exude
Tears
Oceans
Preservatives
Washers of wounds

Blood pressure
Bread leavening
descending
rising

Too much
Too little
ruins a thing

better tasting
Humor taken
with a grain

Plain speech
peppering

Salt of earth salt
of earth
You are the

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

…

Questions from an insomniac

During one of the several times I woke up during the night, an idea for a book about sleep (or lack thereof) arose. I’ve since been doing biblical and online research on the topic, but if thoughts come to you about any of the questions posed, I hope you'll respond in the Comments section below.

1. What keeps you from going to sleep? (For instance, pain, medication, worry, caffeine, etc.)
2. Does anyone else in your family have sleep problems?
3. Once you’re asleep, do you wake up? How often?
4. What’s most apt to awaken you during the night?
5. How comfy are your bed and pillow?
6. Do you have a quiet space dedicated to sleep?
7. What helps you rest best? (For example, praying a particular prayer or recalling scripture)

Thank you for your responses to the above and anything else that might help those who have trouble sleeping as, reportedly, millions of us do!

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

…

Every Job A Parable

Pastor, author, and seminary teacher John Van Sloten investigates vocations in his insightful book Every Job A Parable: What Walmart Greeters, Nurses & Astronauts Tell Us About God. Published by NavPress, who kindly sent me a copy to review via the Tyndale Blog Network, this book speaks of our Creator God, Who works in and through us in all kinds of work.

As the author of this highly recommended book explains, “The first step may be submitting to the fact that creation really is filled with the thoughts of God, that you are meant to grasp those thoughts, that work is a place where that can happen, and that none of this can happen apart from God’s Spirit illumining your way.”

Equally important, “For this process to play out in an effective way, we need to be very familiar with the God of the Bible. Without a deep knowledge of the God of the Scriptures (the Old Testament and the New) we won’t be able to recognize his signature moves in creation.”

For example, “Sanitation workers image a God who cleans and maintains his creation. Their work points to a central tenet of our Christian faith: that God is a God who cleans up our lives (justifies us through the humble, selfless, servant-like work of Christ) and then keeps them clean (maintains and sanctifies us via the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit).”

In the parables, Jesus used everyday jobs to illustrate deep spiritual truths, for instance, in His stories involving vineyard workers, judges, and farmers, the latter of whom know “they need to submit to and trust an entire ecosystem of outside forces” – all of which remain under God's care-filled management.

Then “the deeper we enter into an awareness of God’s presence at work, the more we will know him as the providential source of all things. As we experience him through our creativity, rationality, sense of timing, physical skills, or entrepreneurialism, we will be reminded that all of these good gifts – just like the sun and the rain – come from (God’s) gracious hand.”

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017, poet-writer and reviewer


Every Job A Parable: What Walmart Greeters, Nurses & Astronauts Tell Us About God, paperback



...