Catastrophes: Real or Imagined?

Since I work in an ER and see lots of true catastrophes, things don’t rattle me as much as they used to.

Anything that seemed “out of control” was to me a catastrophe. For instance, finding out I was missing an ingredient to a recipe I was cooking for my shortly arriving company was just short of an A-bomb. On becoming a parent, feeling like my two year old would still be in training pants when she was ten, struck fear in this mother’s heart. As the years passed, I became more mellow. I’d tell the kids if I needed privacy, “Don’t bother me unless there’s blood or throw up.”

I don’t want to become callous to other people’s suffering but we, as Americans, tend to “think” we are suffering when it’s just a minor inconvenience or something that goes against our flesh. To have a two hour wait in a doctor’s office is horrendous. It’s out of our control (as if we really had any control) and we can’t change it.

I once heard someone say that a true catastrophe would be third degree burns on eighty percent of your body. That puts it all into perspective, doesn’t it? I am asking God to keep me from over-catastrophizing (is this a word?) things. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17 says, “…that the Father…may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.”

We can all use a good dose of His wisdom and revelation. I feel like we are going to need it as these end times progress.