Surviving the Storms of Life

Surviving the Storms of Life is a timely book, and it offers timely help to any who are experiencing such storms. In the past few years we have witnessed hurricane Katrina, which laid waste the gulf coast of America and came near to wiping out New Orleans; the tsunami in the Indian Ocean basin that claimed nearly 200,000 lives; the earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan that threatened to and did partly melt down a nuclear reactor; a level 5 tornado that wiped out much of Joplin, Missouri, snuffing out 122 lives; and Hurricane Irene, which, even downgraded to a tropical storm, wreaked havoc with flooding on the northeastern United States, especially Vermont.
David Whitlock has such intimate acquaintance with these and other events and skillfully crafts so many stories about them that you might suspect that he is a storm tracker for the Weather Channel. But he isn't. He's pastor of a Baptist church and sometimes a professor at Campbellsville University in Kentucky. And his reason for writing a book about coping with the storms of life, I suspect, stems from something much more personal and inescapable than witnessing storms in macrocosm could have caused, the valiant but losing battle of his first wife, Katri, with cancer. When any of us endure such grievous experiences that wound us and sap the life out of us, we join a vast company of fellow sufferers, for, like it or not, suffering occupies a place at the very center of the human story and also the Christian story.
What can we do to survive not only such terrifying events as these but to get our shattered lives together again and live anew? When you read Surviving the Storms of Life, you will recognize immediately that David Whitlock has been through some storms and knows what he is talking about. In opening chapters he offers down-to-earth counsel. I can imagine my family going through these steps during a tornado alert when sirens at local fire stations blare a warning. We survived a devastating tornado ripping through the campus and area around Southern Seminary on April 4, 1974, so we don't hesitate to take this advice. (1) Be prepared. For us that usually has meant flashlights, candles, battery radio, cell phone, and first aid kit. For more personal storms it would be wise the follow the rest of this book's directions. (2) Find a safe place. We go to the basement, and we worry above people who don't have basements. (3) Know when [and I would add where] to call for help.