Over the past two weeks we have been stunned by TV images of horror and devastation caused by hurricane Katrina. This time, it was not some impoverished third world country suffering from an earthquake, tsunami or typhoon but the coastal and port cities of one of the most prosperous nations in the world.

Only four years ago, we were bewildered by the 9/11 tragedy. We watched on TV as terrorists slammed passenger planes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

At that time many Americans took a deeper look at their personal lives. Headlines, articles and editorials suggested that this catastrophe would change the lives of Americans forever. Millions bought flags. Church attendance soared. Bible and religious-book sales skyrocketed.

People vowed to spend more time with their families. Divorces slacked off. For a time even crime decreased. But pundits, researchers and statisticians now admit that within a matter of months most of those resolutions fell by the wayside.

Though the horror of 9/11 may have made few lasting changes in the behavior of most of Americans, its crushing impact on the nation's economy was enormous. Some estimates of 9/11 related costs run as high as one trillion dollars!

Now, with Katrina, the American economy takes another major hit. Fuel costs soar. The American people will again have to consider major changes in their lifestyles—this time of necessity, not by choice.

Interestingly, several American TV programs are labeled 'reality' shows where participants are permitted to drop out anytime they wish. Of course, one of those who continue is assured of winning big money.

That is not what is happening now on America's Gulf Coast. There true reality reigns. The suffering and loss is staggering—though the outpouring of assistance and concern for victims by volunteers is truly heartwarming. Yet occurrences of rioting, looting and violence did severely hinder the effort to rescue those trapped in New Orleans.

The fact that disasters may disclose less than the best in some people brings this biblical lament to mind: "... I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night they prowl about on its walls; malice and abuse are within it. Destructive forces are at work in the city; threats and lies never leave its streets. If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God" (Psalms 55:9-14, NIV).

We too live at a time when good and bad people dwell together in the same town, on the same street—even attend the same church. Only God knows how to distinguish for sure those who are committed to living rightly from those who obscure evil motives and deeds behind a facade of goodness.

Do you always measure your personal motivations and patterns of behavior by God's standards of righteousness? It's a tough question, I know—but an essential one! Although time and chance occurrences can happen to everyone (Ecclesiastes 9:11), God promises to show special favor to individuals and nations that respond positively to His commandments. One of the reasons He established the nation of ancient Israel was to illustrate this fact.

He told them, "Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time" (Deuteronomy 4:39-40, emphasis added throughout).

When things don't go well with us—such as the disasters of 9/11, hurricane Ivan in 2004 and now hurricane Katrina in 2005—it behooves us to look at how closely we are paying attention to God's definitions of right behavior.

Measuring ourselves only by our own standards, as a nation or as individuals, is not sufficient. We all have a responsibility to judge our personal behavior by God's definitions of righteousness. If we respond to Him sincerely, we are assured: "For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield" (Psalm 5:12).