How to deal with a crisis

Jalál (Glory), 18 Rahmat (Mercy), 166 BE – Saturday, July 11, 2009 about 847 AM Pacific Time

"How to deal with a crisis" was the subject line of a piece of junk mail I received in my e-mail box a couple of days ago. While I didn't read the complete message, the subject line started me thinking about how different people deal with a crisis.

Some people panic when confronted with a crisis. Under most circumstances, I don't panic. Panicking in a crisis doesn't help and it only makes the crisis worse. I prefer to get my prayer book, turn to the section on "Tests and Difficulties" and intone the prayers aloud. Sometimes that isn't possible; however, I have memorized two prayers that always help in a crisis. One of them is short and I can recite it mentally without reading it aloud.

Once I have recited "The Remover of Difficulties" or another prayer, then I proceed to deal with the crisis at hand. Prayers always help in dealing with a crisis because they allow a person to focus on the solution rather then the problem which caused the crisis.