Friday, January 30, 2026
If you live in Florida, you are glued to the phone during a hurricane. The storm is a direct hit – Run for your life! Then three hours later, it veers – OK Chill! Then a direct hit – Hell is breaking loose! Then, it veers “at the last minute.”
We pray away hurricanes and diseases. We pray away pending lawsuits. We pray away death. That’s not prayer. That’s a prediction, and God loves predictions.
Wishing and hoping and praying are alright. You are fooling yourself if you think prayer “works.” If the hurricane dodges you, the poor saps on the Southside just didn’t pray hard enough. My neighbors moved away from Florida last year. They couldn’t take these unpredictable storms. The state of unknowing baffled them. But I wanted to tell them you’re always in a state of unknowing, not just the misery of Florida.
You’re living in the path of a hurricane. The state of life’s path is as circuitous as Helene. Your circumstances blow to smithereens like a tornado in a trailer park and you wonder “Why God?” Only Helene knows. God himself was wondering, “Where the hell was this one going!” We’re all wondering – where is this going?
We are to adjust to where it goes. We are to evacuate when the gut says go. We yield. We surrender to life’s “unpredictable ways.” Unpredictable ways have more power than my predictions.
You don’t pray for protection. That’s telling God what to do, besides – he doesn’t know! You pray for acceptance. Freedom from predictions, which create predicaments. The only thing you can do about the weather is experience it. The only thing you can do about life is live it.
Or do you think you can move away to a “safer” state? There is no safer state than the state of unknowing.