Praying About Hurricanes

Hurricane season lasts for almost another 11 weeks. So far there have been 14 named Atlantic hurricanes. Since the average is 11.3 we are, as predicted, on track for an unusually active season. There is never any lack of information about how to prepare. And media outlets always provide plenty of coverage as storms take shape and move toward land.

But if you’ve ever felt helpless as a hurricane develops in the Caribbean and starts spinning in our direction, you may wonder, as I have, what effect prayer can have at such a time?

Americans are a religious people and polls show that 58% (181 million) of us pray daily. I would assume those numbers go up for people in hurricane prone areas during hurricane season. So it stands to reason that there’s a lot of praying going on in relation to hurricanes.

Insurers call hurricanes “acts of God” and that may ring true for some. Not for me. The God I listen for in times of fear is an entirely different God.

I recently saw a national news report that showed a Katrina survivor from New Orleans on the village green in Woodstock, Vermont feeding Irene victims who had been cut off from their food and power sources. That seems more like an “act of God” to me.

The New Testament of The Bible portrays God this way:

 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

That seems right to me. That’s a God that inspires us to think soundly and fearlessly and act compassionately. As hurricanes form in the Caribbean and head our way, that’s the God I’ll be praying to and listening for.