What a Record-Breaking Tornado in My State Taught Me about Being Prepared for Death
The tragic events that happen around the globe are more frequent than we realize. A few years ago a gas line explosion nearly four miles down the road from my house breathed fire into the air and illuminated the sky so much that people from several nearby counties could see the flames clearly. The flames were even picked up by satellite imaging. The initial reaction from the residents was that the Lord has returned, and this is the end. The explosion left some without homes and another person without their life.
On December 10, a weather system developed and caused a string of tornadoes to touch down and leave their mark across the Midwest. Within this system was a historical cyclone that stayed on the ground for a record-breaking 220 miles. Though it stretched across four states in the darkness of night, it was the small town of Mayfield, located in the western part of my home state of Kentucky, which fell prey to the irrepressible tornado at the peak of its wrath. This community was leveled and left in post-apocalyptic debris that would cause even the coldest of hearts to soften for a moment of reflection and awe.
“This community was leveled and left in post-apocalyptic debris that would cause even the coldest of hearts to soften for a moment of reflection and awe.”
Though we know tragedies like these come to other parts of the world, it does not change the fact that fear and pain still come to our door in one way or another as products of suffering. We’ll suffer in this life, whether from a more notable event like a natural disaster that levels your home, the loss of precious life at the hands of a newsworthy accident, or something less dramatic and more common like the pain of severed relationships.
And here’s the kicker that keeps plaguing my mind in recent days: it would seem that no level of preparedness can be taken against suffering except to know suffering will come. It seems like all that one can do is lower the blow suffering delivers to victims.
With that being said, I want you to know that I think being prepared is wise. Finding ways to prepare yourself for moments in life can be a matter of life or death in several situations. As the strong winds approached my house on December 11, I was thankful for the times I practiced tornado drills with my five kids who are all under eight years old. The winds from the tornado crumpled the trampoline in our backyard like you and I might crumple a ball of twisty ties.
But even as we see the benefits of being prepared, we need to also see its futility. We could start collecting packages of water and emergency rations in the event of food supply shortages, but what do we do when the rations run out? We could buy every solar panel on earth for sustainable energy, but what do we do when the panels stop working? We could build a safe house, but what do we do when people find out about it? We could learn self-defense to ensure no one does us bodily harm, but what do we do when we encounter madmen with no reservations or convictions? We could save all the money in the world and store every helpful item we could think of, but what do we do when our bank accounts get hacked and our supplies get plundered when we let our guard down?
These questions make me wonder if the only thing we can really prepare for in this life is preparing for the inevitable that will happen to us all.
Death.
When we take an honest look at all this preparation, most of our effort only points back to staying alive. We save food and water to ensure we can stay alive in a famine. We save money to buy things in order to stay alive when supplies for living are low. We build our strength and take care of our bodies in order to live longer. We build safe houses that are strong so that we can stay alive without worry of how harsh the elements get or to keep out intruders who might attempt to break inside. Nearly all the prepping we do points back to our desire to live longer. This effort has its place. But shouldn’t we also prepare to die? How do we do that?
The best way I know to prepare to die is knowing how our Savior lived and died and lived again and how we live in him.
As we turn through the Gospels, we see a man who was born humbly and innocently in a stable (Luke 2:12). We see a man who grew up learning theology amongst intelligent teachers (Luke 2:46–49). We see a man who worked with his hands and built items of practical use with the sweat of diligence and the satisfying pleasure of hard labor (Mark 6:3). We see a man who accumulated friends and walked with them daily to teach them of never-ending joy and peace (Mark 2:13-17). We see a man feeding and healing communities with food and life-altering words (Matt. 14:14).
We see a man abandoned by those friends and members of the community in his greatest hour of need and traded their loyalty for sleep and saving face before the mob (Mark 14:50). We see a man endure the greatest torture and pain any man has ever experienced for crimes he did not commit (Luke 17:25). We see a man bleed profusely from his wounds for the very people who marred him (Luke 9:22). We see a man die for those who accused him, refused him, and misunderstood him (Luke 23).
We see a man muster up enough energy through the pain and suffering to proclaim his final battle cry that would leave everyone present with their thoughts and emotions coursing through their minds (Matt. 27:45–50). We see a man breath his last breath and caused tears to be shed and veils to be shred (Matt. 27:50–56). We see a man buried in death, but not just any death (Matt. 27:57–60). A death that he was born to die, a death, we might say, he was preparing for his whole life (John 14:29).
In short, we see a man who lived and died and lived again, a man who shows the only way to be prepared for what we can never avoid.
“In refamiliarizing ourselves with the Christmas story we do the kind of preparation that will carry us when every other preparation fails us. ”
With the Christmas season upon us, we have an opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with this wonderful story, and in refamiliarizing ourselves with the story we do the kind of preparation that will carry us when every other preparation fails us. So, let us not forget that the babe in the manger was the king on the cross. Let us not forget that the one born in a barn and raised by sinners was also buried in a cave yet raised to life. Let us not forget that we are not serving a life committed to a dead man in the ground, but we find hope in the promises of a resurrected savior who is alive and sitting at the right hand of the Father.
Friends, we have hope this Christmas because when we celebrate the coming of our king we are celebrating the preparation of leaving this earth in death to be glorified in eternal life with our Lord! The only way we can effectively prepare for that day is to look to Jesus and remember his words in Matthew 4:17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This is the kind of preparation that will never be rendered preparation done in vain.
Aaron Warner is married with five children and a manufacturing operator. He is a member of New Hope Baptist Church in Moreland, Kentucky. He is the cohost of The Punctually Late Show podcast and a blogger at Stewardship In All Things.