Worst Case Scenario

Ever so often we have to face worst case sce­nar­ios. They come in many forms. Some econ­o­mists are talk­ing about a world-wide per­fect eco­nomic storm that is about to break (coun­tries already going into default). The med­ical com­mu­nity is fac­ing a form of restruc­tur­ing that has already sent doc­tors into early retire­ment. Unem­ploy­ment, immi­gra­tion, and an aging soci­ety are all part of the mix as well. What will all of this be a year from now or a decade from now? What if we have to face our own worst case sce­nario (and sooner or later we will)?

Jesus warned of the com­ing destruc­tion of Jerusalem as an inevitable worst case sce­nario. He also gave instruc­tions to his fol­low­ers on how to deal with it: flee the city. Those that took his advice lived. He made that a par­al­lel to the end of the world. The only dif­fer­ence is that in the last worst case sce­nario, there is no place to run. That solu­tion has to do with prepar­ing now for the ulti­mate escape — from phys­i­cal life itself.

If you drive a car or have a beat­ing heart, you can face a worst case sce­nario at any given moment. It is just part of life. Depend­ing on its form, you will find ways to tran­scend what­ever it is. Spir­i­tu­al­ity is the key. Los­ing every­thing you own? You are about to dis­cover a bet­ter life out­side of mate­r­ial well being — one that was dis­cov­ered inten­tion­ally by monks and desert her­mits for cen­turies. About to be mur­dered? Do what Jesus did: for­give all and cast your soul into the hands of the lov­ing God.

There is not a worst case sce­nario that you can­not face. It is not a bad idea to think about some of those ahead of time, but do not waste your time antic­i­pat­ing them. No mat­ter how care­fully you live, one of those can sneak up on you in a form you could never imag­ine. The good news is that your spirit and the Spirit of God live to kick into the gap. It might be a good idea to become famil­iar with them ahead of time. God seems to appre­ci­ate a famil­iar voice in prayer.