Lessons from the Storm

You would have to be living under a rock these days to not have heard about the destruction in the south. On Wednesday alone- in our area we were under pretty much constant tornado warnings for over 12 hours. My house had two rounds of hailstorms and pretty intense thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. However, this was nothing compared to this:

4-27-11 Tornado Tuscaloosa, Al from Crimson Tide Productions on Vimeo.

So, this weekend I was driving to Ohio to visit my sister (and family of course) for the weekend and had 6 hours of drive time to think about what I learned from the storm.

1) What appears to be a good thing- may in fact, be the thing that can bring about great destruction. You see, earlier on Wednesday we had a torrential rain and then the sun came out, dried it all up and made it nice and warm. You would think that was just what was needed- but our weathermen mentioned several times that night (in the 8 straight hours of coverage) that really- that was bad. That set up the atmosphere for the perfect conditions for the storms that took place. How often do I look at something and think it's a good thing- maybe even a "God-thing" and realize later that it has brought great destruction?

2) One may think that the effects were localized for each place- but numerous reports have come out about documents, papers, items, photos, etc. being found over a hundred miles from where they started- got me thinking about what I have that could be blown over 100 miles- would it be something I would be proud of? Or ashamed?

3.) What appears to be "small" can cause great damage. The hail that I had was pea-marble sized hail. However, about 15 minutes away I had friends who had dented houses, piles (some 8 inch high) of hail, hail that were the size of baseballs, broken windows, holes in convertible tops, etc. I liken this to words- a comment made in passing, words spoken in "truth" or trying to be "helpful" can cause a tremendous amount of pain. There's a reason why in James it talks about bridling the tongue- we could all (myself included) take those verses to heart a bit more.

4) The past few weeks there have been numerous tornado watches, thunderstorm warnings, tornadic (yes, that is a word- I heard it several times the other night) activity and yet, I am sure there were people caught unaware- people who may have thought- that won't happen to me. Sometimes, I wonder if we have become so desensitized to what we hear that we quit paying attention when someone is trying to help us (kind of like in the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf). The application is an easy one here- I can't help but think of how often (especially lately) we have heard about Jesus coming back. I am not here to debate the ins and outs and theological viewpoints (quite honestly it's something I need to study more) but the real point- am I ready? Am I helping others be ready? Am I sharing the truths that they need to hear? Am I aware?


Not all of my thoughts by any means- and as I gather some more I will continue to share them but I will leave you with this (and I know this has been long but I hope you have hung in there!)