When facing circumstances in life that seem to be out of your control, you do still have choices. When that tragedy strikes and you feel you are flailing or sinking, you have choices. In recent weeks we have witnessed, and perhaps experienced, stories related to consequences of uncontrollable weather, attacks on people’s character, terrorist activities, plane crashes, and other events to which people did not have or felt out of control.

Regardless of a person’s faith, belief system, or values, these types of events can and will happen to all of us. Simply because we are human living life on earth means we will all, at some point, encounter times or events for which we have no control in our lives that alter or change us. The question to ask is not about why we experience such an event, but how we handle it when we do.

One important point to remember when an unplanned, uncontrollable tragedy occurs, is that in that exact moment a person can still exercise a level of control to decide how he or she wants to move forward. In other words, a person is never fully removed from the ability to select options or choices.

It is just that the choices immediately before him or her may be limited. For a person to think through those options followed by selecting the option that is best at that point in time helps restore some, as minimal as it may be, level of control, a level of calm.

An inward look allows us to also make a choice. Personally, my choice is to follow my faith in God, knowing that no matter how out of control I feel or how out of control the circumstances seem to be to me, God is in control. I know through my faith that God loves me and He already knows the outcome. I either exercise my faith and draw closer to God through my faith or I walk away from all of it.

Some may call it a “crutch,” but I am OK with that, since at that point in my circumstances, I would rather rely on there being an all-knowing, loving God to help me get through the circumstance than to falsely believe that I must get through it under my own human, frail, mind and body.

Regardless of a person’s reaction to these uncontrollable events, it is also important to have an external source of help. People need a safety net of other people to circle them, encourage them, help them, and support them. It is not difficult to fall into a false sense of being alone with feelings of depression, angst, and “aloneness.”

It is important through all of life to develop and sustain relationships with others so that we can provide support for our friends when they go through life’s trials and gain support from them when we go through them.

Are you as prepared as you can be for the inevitable? You have choices.