If an ice storm really is on its way and we get iced in and/or lose our electricity, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thanks for dropping by … and, sorry, I don’t have much on my mind.

I bought extra firelogs today. I know where the matches and candles are. There are plenty of batteries for the flashlights.

Yet I feel uneasy. My nine-year-old daughter is spending the night with a school chum who lives almost 40 miles to the north of us. Or, maybe, several nights – should the storm hit with force.

You never know what will happen.

A senior cheerleader at my son’s junior high/high school was killed – along with her mother – instantly, in an automobile accident on Wednesday night. She didn’t have a church home in life, but in death my home church will serve next Tuesday morning.

It’s been especially tough on her friends, most of whom have strong church ties. All of the youth ministry staff and many others have spent a lot of time at Central Arkansas Christian’s Maumelle campus, helping console and counsel.

I don’t know what you say to grieving young people that will lessen their pain at an already-difficult time in their lives. I don’t know that the young staffers at my home church do either.

Except that you do your best to be prepared. You try to stoke the fire within you; to recharge your spiritual batteries; to know how to ignite the light of Christ that will shine and warm those around.

And you pray that the storm will pass you by.