What do you do when you feel powerless?

It’s 2:21 am, and I can’t sleep. I crawl out of bed and drape my exhausted body on the couch in front of the TV. Late night TV is usually an effective sleeping pill. The microwave dings, announcing that the water is hot enough to make a cup of Sleepy Time tea. But the TV images and words bring me fully awake.

In high definition, I see a colorful red, yellow, and white circle spinning across a map of the Carribean. I hear words like”catastrophic” and “150 miles per hour”. The scene morphs into a long line of people hugging their life necessities in their arms or dragging odd makeshift luggage. Some hugged babies and some hugged portable oxygen tanks. All their eyes were wide with uncertainty.  Next, the camera reveals the inside of a store with row after row of empty white shelves that use to hold ingredients to sustain life.

I couldn’t stop the sheets of rain that erased a house behind the man with a microphone fighting the wind, wearing rubber clothing. I couldn’t catch the stop sign that blew across the street. I couldn’t provide a generator to give power for dialysis. I couldn’t do anything, but stare … and finally pray. That’s when God’s grace gave me a new perspective.

It was then I remembered why I couldn’t sleep. I had worked for months to make the dream of my radio show come true, but uncontrolled technology had sabotaged the last 15 minutes of my very first show. I had felt horrified and powerless! But in reality, it could be fixed by redirecting my listeners to the podcast. Sadly, I couldn’t fix the broken hearts reaching out from my TV.

I exhaled.

Then I copied the TV information on how to donate to hurricane relief.

    Until next time, remember,

• You are not alone.

• You are not your circumstances.

• You have everything within you to live a purpose-filled life.