The snow on drives and walkways have produced some uncomfortable moments the past few days. Backing my car out of the garage, for instance, I felt the back wheels lose traction and the rear of the car swerve sideways. I didn't worry too much because I was going 2 miles an hour and the entire drive is "padded" by banks of snow left by plowing after the blizzard. But even so, there was a moment of panic, of feeling out of control and at the mercy of physical laws of motion that care nothing for me personally or consider whether I want or deserve to go spinning around on ice and crash into the nearest solid object.

Sometimes our lives are that way. We are moving along on schedule and suddenly we lose control and are being carried along a trajectory that we can not stop and that might land us in trouble. Or, someone else whose life is skidding is heading toward us, unable to prevent a collision.

I doubt such times can be prevented. But something can help us through them: the confidence that we remain in the hands of Christ, even when things are out of our own hands. In fact, those can be the most faith-stretching times, drawing us into a dependence on the Lord that we are meant to have at all times, but that we put aside when we feel in control ourselves. Don't panic and make things worse. Just pray and hold on until the movement stops or the impact is over. Faith can absorb a great many bumps in life. And when control returns to you, ask God how to fix any fall out from the craziness.