For years now, many in our nation have been warning of the coming collapse of our nation’s economy.  The signs were easy to see.  But most were unaware, or didn’t take the time to understand them. I’ve written a lot over the last number of years about the coming economic collapse.

At the same time as many were warning about the economy, others were warning about the potential of a pandemic.  History teaches us that pandemics are a reality of our fallen world.  Sooner or later these global events appear, and when they do, many lives are lost and the entire world is disrupted.  

Whether this pandemic and the associated disruptions are natural, or self-inflicted, is beyond my ability to know for certain.  While I may have my own views, at the end of the day, my little place in this world is of such inconsequence to something as pervasive as the COVID-19 pandemic and its far-reaching effects, that my theories about it’s origination are meaningless.  Furthermore, you and I have zero potential to redirect the path our nation and world are speeding down. 

But that’s not what I wanted to discuss today.  Rather, I wanted to address the principle that is taught in a verse from Proverbs, the book of wisdom in the Bible.  Note what Solomon had to say:

💡”A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”  Proverbs 22:4

Approximately 1,000 years after Solomon penned the above principle, one of Solomon’s descendants, the King who will ultimately sit and rule the world from the throne that Solomon occupied, had this to say about how we know when storms are threatening:

💡”Then Jesus turned to the crowd and said, “When you see clouds beginning to form in the west, you say, ‘Here comes a shower.’ And you are right.”  Luke 12:54

When you look out your window and see dark clouds gathering, the wind picking up, animals scurrying about, and other such signs, you can normally predict that there is a storm coming.  From the place where we live, up atop a hill that sees miles off into the horizon, we regularly see this happening.  It’s quite easy to predict what will occur in the next few moments when we see the band of rain headed our direction.

In a way, I believe the responses that we take when we see a physical storm is coming, can be applied to the current COVID-19 crisis.  Let me explain.

If you could go back 90 days, prior to the escalation of the COVID-19 crisis, and you knew then what you know now, would you do anything differently then?  I have no doubt you would, just as I would.  I’d be willing to speculate that you would have at least purchased more toilet tissue, or some other consumable.  Right?  But there are probably other steps you would have taken then, that today you are incapable of addressing.

So let’s look at where we are today and then try to fast forward a few weeks or months into the future.  Are there any dark, ominous storm clouds on the horizon that warn of some difficult times ahead?  Are there signals that the worst could still be yet to come?  Do you believe that opening up the economy is just going to magically bring back to reality what we might have been enjoying just a few short months ago?

The answers for me to all of those question are resoundingly clear.  Additionally though, my gut, along with so many of the reports I read, are warning that the clouds are bringing an even more ominous storm.  Is it possible I could be wrong?  Absolutely.  But when your smartphone alerts you to a “Tornado Warning” and you take cover, are you angry afterwards if the tornado did not materialize?  Or are you simply thankful that the plan you put in place was sufficient to protect you, had the tornado destroyed your home?

From an early age I was taught that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  In this case, “a prudent person forsees danger and takes precaution.”  There are strong indications that what is to come in the remaining chapters of this COVID-19 crisis, and beyond, could be worse.  If so, what should you do?

Well, only you can decide what are the appropriate steps that you should take for you and your family.  But at the very minimum, consider what you wish you would have done 90 days ago.  If you have not yet addressed those steps, then what about starting there?  Is it possible that over the next 30-60 days you could formulate a plan to check off those items?

Beyond that though, here are a few other ideas that I shared previously, in another article I penned four years ago.  In this article, I offered a number of practical steps you and I can take and should be taking immediately, to respond to the storm clouds we all see.

If the last 60+ days should convince us of one thing, it should be that the unimaginable can in fact occur.  To delay today is to be sorry tomorrow.  Today you can act.  Tomorrow may be too late.