A horrible thing happened in Haiti. Period. And to watch us rally and respond as a country, as a world, as a body of Christ has been moving and inspiring. It’s all hands on deck, with a sense of urgency, like tomorrow will be too late for progress.  We are wired to act this way in times of crisis, as a society, as individuals. We go into “crisis mode” and we focus harder, we work faster, we take nothing for granted. We attend to the emergency at hand.  For many of us, though, it takes a crisis to get us moving, to act, to exercise our faith. 

In Wide Awake, Erwin McManus writes, “When you are about to drown in a storm, you’re really open to God and whatever he might want to say to you.”  He was talking about the miracle of Peter walking on water. When we need a miracle, when we are at the brink of disaster, it is easy to turn to God, because there is nowhere else to turn. In a crisis, you just respond.

My goal is to avoid requiring a personal crisis to exercise my faith.  Sure, trusting in God during a horrific storm is a good thing.

I want to be strong enough to respond just as swiftly when the waters around me are calm.