As I sifted through my half-written stories this week, debating which one to finish and submit for my column, nothing seemed fitting. The devastation our country is experiencing in the South continues to rush over my mind. All tasks on my to-do list hold minimal value in the wake of the current events. A little over one week ago, people’s lives, as they knew them, were literally washed away. 

If you haven’t experienced a devastating loss, consider yourself lucky. While some complain they are without power, cable, internet, or phone, many would gladly do without to have a roof or a loved one return safely. People can get consumed with toxic topics in a storm swirling with politics, conspiracies, and prophecies. For all of creation, people have been experiencing hardships, including the times that Jesus walked this earth. 

During Bible times, people experienced earthquakes, drought, famine and plagues, to name a few. Throughout our creation, humanity has suffered through natural disasters, pandemics, and government turmoil. In 1918 the Spanish Influenza plague killed over 500 million people. Ranked among one of the highest loss of lives on record is the Yellow River Flood of 1887. Over 200,000 people were lost to an earthquake in 2010 in Haiti. 

We live in a broken world. From the moment Adam and Eve chose to eat the forbidden fruit, all humanity has been doomed to face hardships and heartbreak. Let us not just sit and wait for God’s return, predicting each disaster or pressing our political views on others. God probably doesn’t need our help preparing something He has already planned out. He needs us to be His hands and feet, demonstrating His love. 

What if the trials and tribulations happening all around the world aren’t meant for us to spread predictions but to share compassion? I recall reading a Scholastic current events handout with my class in elementary school. Pictures of a tsunami-wrecked shoreline plastered to the front page have never left my mind. Those types of things don’t happen here, I thought. Deadly diseases and natural disasters happen in other countries, third-world countries. When they hit home, they hit harder, it seems. 

Are your heartstrings being pulled? Let us not soak up what the news stations, social media, and others say. Open our Bibles. Pray to God, speaking His words. Listen, be still. What is He trying to show and tell you? If we pollute our minds with what the world says, we will be saturated with fear and anger. Filling our hearts, minds, and souls with God’s will and way will bring us peace and compassion. Busy our hands by working for the Lord. 

We will never look at a person in the eye whom God doesn’t love. Prepare yourself not with food and shelter but with a personal relationship with God. It’s not a matter of if you will face hardships but when. God doesn’t promise you won’t face troubles. However, He does promise that He will never leave you. May we get off the hamster wheel and stop running in circles? God has a path for us to walk that shares His eternal love for everyone. 

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1-3 

“Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.” Psalm 143:1

Contact Ashley at ashley@tippgazette.com

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Tippecanoe Gazette

Attn: Ashley Spring McCarroll

PO Box 84

Tipp City, Ohio 45371