When Disaster Strikes
Linda Soller | Nov 03, 2025
When disaster strikes you may find it easy to ask for God’s help. We humans like to feel we are in control. There is nothing like a disaster to remind us we are rarely in control. Then again, in between disasters, our confidence may rise and recognizing our need for God may wain. This pattern is often true especially when you are not directly impacted by the disaster. An earthquake in the middle east, a flood in the mountains, a fire in the west are all real disasters and hit home for many. But for those of us who do not live there or have family or friends there it may be hard to wrap our minds around what it’s really like. We may even forget these areas and people quickly as we turn off the news and return to our daily lives.
Once in a while a disaster strikes that gets our attention and deserves to keep it. Enter Melissa, the category 5 hurricane. While restorative rain moved through our country keeping her off our coast, thousands of others were not so lucky. We watched the weather channels as Melissa crawled toward Jamaica building strength along the way. Good we thought that people had time to respond to the threat, but few took advantage of the help offered. Many stayed in their homes. Repairs from previous seasons’ storms still underway only to be knocked down by this new monster storm. In countries and islands, with difficulty providing what we Americans consider to be minimal services, their ability to survive was and will be tested.
The areas will resemble a war zone, a war with nature. People we don’t know will need our help. People we will never actually meet need our prayers. Countries we may only know from travel brochures will struggle to rebuild when no one wants to travel there. Islands of rare beauty will take years, even decades, to recapture their lush landscapes. But prayers can be lifted. Those unknown to us don’t have to be forgotten. Nature will continue to challenge and reward us. What will you do? How long will you remember? How will you put your faith into action. Anything you do to help is better than doing nothing at all.
Be strong in the Lord and be kind.
Linda
