Terror-Proofing Your Life, Pt 2 — Situational Awareness

Proverbs 22:3 “The prudent sees danger and hides himself.”

Last summer I was in the Time Square Train Station leaving from a training session with my friend, Sambo Steve.  We were exhausted, drenched, and dehydrated from a great night of working out.  As we walked down the dingy dark entrance to get our tickets to ride back to Highland Falls, there were hundreds of New Yorkers rushing around.  After purchasing our tickets, we got some Gyro’s from the vendor at the top of the stairs.  

While eating I took notice of a guy pace-counting (measuring distance by footsteps) the entrances to each of the subway passages.  This was odd behavior to me.  So I stood up and went towards the center map to get a better look at this guy’s activities.  He had an IPhone and was taking pictures of the arches with what appeared to be some sort of measuring app.  He was pretty focused on what he was doing. 

I started thinking to myself: why would this guy be doing a pace count of the entrances and scanning the arches with measurements? I had some ideas that weren’t pleasant but let’s just assume maybe he was an architect fascinated with the stonework. 

What does this story have to do with Terror-proofing our lives?  Everything!!!

I had a choice in that subway station.  I could let fear overwhelm me or I could go about my business gathering whatever information I could to give it to the right people. 

When we discuss Terror-Proofing your life there really isn’t anything more important than controlling your emotions- namely fear (here).  To be honest, the other skills and preparatory steps we will talk about all begin with mastering your emotions and giving them to God.   

As important as being in a state of emotional control is, it will not be enough.  There are other things that must be developed in order to terror-proof your life.  Skills like: being prepared, not having a victim mentality, developing a willingness to sacrifice for the good of others, pre-determined plans of actions, think like a threat, and our topic for today which is: situational awareness. 

It is amazing to me that the Bible still speaks to most of these topics thousands of years later.  In Proverbs it tells us that, “the prudent sees danger”.  How does a person see danger?  How could the people in Aurora, Newtown, or Boston have seen the danger and hidden themselves from it?  They may have been able to help themselves had they had situational awareness.