The first emergency weather bulletin was interesting. The second one got my attention. One day last week, I was on my way to make hospital visits before an evening meeting when the two bulletins came over the radio. “Quarter sized hail,” “60 mph winds,” “continuous cloud to ground lightening,” “seek shelter.” Hmmm. I asked myself, “Should I continue across the causeway and hope for the best, or should I just turn around and not worry about the visits until the storm passes?” Ultimately, I turned around and decided to wait it out.

Jesus once said something about our ability to know a storm is coming based on the clouds. That’s true, but sometimes I ignore the black clouds and dive right on into the storm, figuring I’ll be fine. I’m not afraid of a little wind and rain. But I probably should be. There are times to take a risk because you have no choice, and there are times you can just as easily wait for a storm to blow over. Regardless of the choice, the storm clouds mean that we have a choice to make.

We don’t always see the storm approaching, while sometimes we ignore it. Sometimes we can

ignore those dark clouds and get away with it. Just a week ago or so I sat on East Beach, listening to a storm coming in from the west behind us and watching it on the radar as it spun in place, waiting for the winds to shift allowing it to push east over the island. We eked out at least an extra 45 minutes to an hour on the sand, but it could have gone the other way.

Not everything in life comes with dark clouds and the rumble of approaching thunder, but a lot of things do sound a warning if we’re willing to see it and not ignore it. I’ve never met anyone who became severely overweight overnight; it happens gradually, and then there are serious health consequences. Most alcoholics don’t become alcoholics after one drink, but in time lose track of their ability to stop drinking the second, then the third, then the fourth, and on it goes until it is out of their control. Many marriages that end in divorce do not end because of a fight one day, but because of years of poor communication and resentment that is not dealt with. If we ignore the signs that a storm is coming, we can be caught in the midst of it before we know it, and bad things can happen.

When we do Living Compass we talk about how our body gives us signs that there is illness, and that when we ignore those signs, they progress to symptoms, and ultimately to disability, disease, and sometimes death. The best thing to do is practice ways of becoming aware of the signs and symptoms that something is not right in our life, and then doing something about it before it is too late. It’s really not all that hard if we can stop and take stock of things. Most of us know where the rumbles of thunder are coming from, and unlike the ones that come from Mother Nature, perhaps we can do something to make them go away.

If you’ve got those rumblings that there is something in your life that is off, an area where darkness is growing, in the sense that it might lead to a bad outcome, stop and think about how you might need to deal with that. Who can help you figure out how to manage the problem or make a plan for healing? Who can support you and be your cheerleader and coach? We may not get emergency bulletins over the radio, but if we pay attention we do get warnings that things need our attention. We can’t ignore them for too long, because eventually we’ll get caught right in the middle of it. And as bad as a summer storm can be with its hail and its lightening, many of us would gladly trade our problems for a little wind and rain.

Tom+