We can rise to meet life's storms with God's help

Growing up on the Gulf Coast has many blessings. We have a wonderful sense of “place.” Since my family has lived for generations in the Gulf Coast areas of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, I praise God for the roots this has given me and for the ties to our beautiful area.
However, growing up in this area has also given me an acquaintance with hurricanes. When I was a child, hurricanes were exciting. It was an adventure to bring everything in from the yard, board up windows and get time off from school during the recovery. In those days, we did not watch television for days as hurricanes formed. When a hurricane was about to hit, people went home or found shelter and “hunkered down.”
I remember when Hurricane Betsy hit Louisiana in 1965—I was a junior in high school. We went to school the day that the hurricane hit. At 3 p.m., the end of the school day, the principal made the announcement that everyone should go home immediately since a hurricane would hit in a few hours. Betsy, a Category 4 storm, hit around midnight. Sadly, the storm flooded much of the city and caused many deaths.
Over the years, those exciting days of youth have given way to the awareness of the tragedy and suffering hurricanes can cause. I think about those who suffered through storms, especially this time of year as the anniversaries of hurricanes that I have experienced occur:

Hilda (38 deaths) 
October 3, 1964

Betsy (81 deaths) 
September 9, 1965

Camille (259 deaths) 
August 17, 1969

Katrina (1,833 deaths) 
August 29, 2005

Sally (9 deaths) 
September 16, 2020

One of the many lessons which these storms taught me can best be summed up by a question I was repeatedly asked after Katrina by people from around the country. Since I was then serving as Bishop of Biloxi, media and individuals would ask if I had noticed that people, in the midst of the struggles, had turned back to God. They expected that I would say that the suffering would bring people back to God. My answer, however, was that it depended on the person. Some turned to God, others did not, some even turned away from God.
It distressed my heart to see people not turn to God in the midst of suffering. Yet, I saw it often. What a loss that they would not turn to the One who could give them the strength to go on, the One who could calm their hearts and the One who could give meaning to all the seemingly meaninglessness.
Suffering comes into our lives in many ways. There are many “storms” in life, not only hurricanes. We usually do not choose how we suffer or when we suffer, but we do choose what we do with the suffering. Suffering and struggles can make us better or it can make us bitter. This is up to us. As the great 20th century Catholic evangelist Bishop Fulton Sheen used to say, “Happiness comes from without, but joy comes from within.” The situations which surround us can bring happiness or sorrow, but the true sense of peace comes from within. The situations around us are often beyond our control, but our inner self is within our control. We can surrender to the situation and make ourselves helpless before the tempest of life or we can, with God’s help, rise to meet whatever storms come our way.