As I was driving north at Christmas, I experienced a mild pang of anxiety upon realizing I did not put our ice scraper back in the car before the trip. Living in Pennsylvania and Maryland, the ice scraper generally lived in the pocket of the driver’s door year round. When we moved to Georgia I almost got rid of it. The only reason I kept it was for our December trips north. The ice scraper is one of those things that even up North we didn’t use often, but when we needed it, we really needed it.
The same can be said of snow shovels. While I occasionally found a creative use for snow shovels, like scooping up a large pile of leaves between the snow shovel and a garden rake, the snow shovel is a useless tool eight months out of the year. Again, on a larger scale, the same can be said of the snow blower. They cost a lot of money to own and maintain, and really might only get used a handful of times each year, at least in the regions that I have lived in. But, if we aren't very strong, or we have a bad back, or heart attacks are real concern, that snow blower is literally a lifesaver.
With the snow that hit the Northeast this week I was thinking about ice scrapers and shovels and snow brushes - even the long galvanized pipe with a flat piece of steel welded on one end that my father and I used to break up ice and frozen snow; all of those tools that I used to have no hand but now I don't even think about. The places I've lived in Pennsylvania and Maryland were both spared from Snomageddon this week, but have certainly had several snowstorms this year already.
Fortunately, snow usually doesn't stick
around indefinitely in the Mid-Atlantic states, as it can further to the north. Snow can be a mess for a few days but eventually it melts and goes away. When the snow is around, though, it can wreak havoc. We can look at damaged roofs or banged up cars just days after the drifts and ice have melted, hardly able to make sense of it. It can be frustrating that something so temporary can cause so much damage and so much trouble.
Having the right tools for those moments when they come up is central to getting through them. We need the snow blower; whatever will get us through that acute crisis of weather, lest we succumb to their damaging realities or experience great inconvenience because we were unprepared. Weather is not the only thing in our lives that presents temporary but very real problems. There are other moments we need to be equipped for when they do present themselves. Our prayer life and our connection to God can be a lifesaver in the midst of some sort of acute attack or turmoil. Many of us frankly do not “need” our faith to get us through every single day, and certainly not the "easy" days. But when those difficult days come we need to know where those prayers are on the garage wall. We need to know where in the car we stuffed God until we needed God.
This is true in major life-changing ways, but also in minor ways. If we do not have a plan, for instance, to deal with stress and anxiety, it can build up and transition from a minor inconvenience to a life-threatening disease. One of the things that our faith provides is that grounding, not unlike a lightning rod, which allows us to deal with anxieties and fears and so many of the challenges we encounter. Every fall there will be news reports and articles in the paper reminding people to check their winter supplies before that first snowstorm comes. Inevitably there will be a run on the hardware stores before the first big storm of the season, and no one will have any snow shovels for sale because they've all been snatched up. It is important for us to take stock of our spiritual lives for similar reasons of preparedness.
Our healthcare system may have us trained to go to the doctor when we are sick, instead of working with our doctor proactively to stay healthy. But I have found that our faith works better in a proactive way. If we can keep it healthy and know how to access it and how to live into it on a regular basis, we don't even have to think about it or look for it when the blizzard comes. Some of the work that I have been doing at Christ Church with programs like Living Compass and with spiritual practices, is to make sure that we are taking stock of our spiritual life on a regular basis noting where we need to address an issue or to grow or to nurture our spiritual life so that we can continue to be healthy. There's no need to wait for the storm. But we also don't want to forget where our tools are and why it is important to have them. I think I’ll go ahead and put that ice scraper back in the car now, before I forget.
Tom+
Almighty and merciful God, in your goodness keep us, we pray, from all things that may hurt us, that we, being ready both in mind and body, may accomplish with free hearts those things which belong to your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.