You’re driving down the road when you hear your vehicle make a strange sound. Your ears perk up and you listen more intently. Soon, a warning light appears on your dashboard, you see whisps of smoke coming from under the hood, and you smell a foul, burnt electrical smell. Quickly, you scan the area and find a safe place to pull over. This place is safe for two reasons. First, you aren’t creating a road hazard for other drivers. Second, you can exit your car safely, knowing you won’t get hit by another vehicle or mugged.
You just put situational awareness into practice.
This is a term that has been around since WWI, a concept coined in a program developed by Oswald Boelke. Today, the term is typically about spotting dangers from terrorists and people trying to cause harm to others. Most of us think it’s beyond our capabilities and only practiced by highly trained individuals. However, we are already practicing it on a regular basis. We just need to fine-tune the skills and apply them in other areas of life.
Sadly, we live in a world where disgruntled individuals shoot up schools, malls, grocery stores, and churches. Backpacks left unattended signal danger and are not to be taken for granted. Other actions of violence begin with something that could have been spotted by those practicing situational awareness.
Today is National Situational Awareness Day and it is a call upon all of us to get our heads on a swivel, being mindful at all times of our surroundings. The skills are easy to develop once we get our minds reprogrammed. We can’t go through life unobservantly. We can’t say, “Oh, this will never happen here or to me.” It only takes one tragic event to change the atmosphere of a community. Just ask the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas.
“Morning services at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, a tiny town about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio, became the scene of a massacre Sunday after a lone gunman killed at least 26 people and injured many more in the deadliest shooting at a place of worship in American history.
The number of casualties, which could rise, also made the shooting the deadliest ever in Texas.
“Everything you see here is what I see happening in other states, but I never thought it’d be this close to home,” said Rita Serna.”1
Situational awareness. Being ready for attacks or someone trying to cause trouble is something we must look out for all the time. In fact, I would say that it is a Biblical thing to do. The Lord has given us some instructions regarding this.
1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” Isn’t that situational awareness? Satan, the demonic host, and the human pawns Satan uses are all around us. We must keep up our guard at all times.
In Ephesians 5:15-16, we read, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, (16) Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” We know that the context of the passage is about spiritual issues. However, application can be made to issues of violence without doing any disservice to the passage. The days are evil and evil will find hundreds of avenues through which to express itself.
It’s not being negative. It’s not being pessimistic. It’s not living in a perpetual fear of our surroundings. It’s not paranoia. It’s being wise. We must practice situational awareness in all areas of life – spiritually in our walk with the Lord as well as physically in our walk in this world. Apply 1 Thessalonians 5:6 to all areas of life.
“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”
1https://www.texastribune.org/2017/11/05/reports-multiple-people-dead-following-central-texas-police-shooting/
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