Temporary Convenience

When the wind blows temporary convenience doesn’t stand a chance. For instance, what occurred last week on Monday, October, 29^th, 2012, when Hurricane Sandy made landfall.

 

Very few of us like our routine or lives interrupted in any way, shape or form. So, when an act of God occurs, we tend to get scared, frustrated, and angry. We feel like we are impervious, until the wind blows and then we realize we can lose everything in a gust of wind. The reality of the matter is, life is temporary and so are the modern conveniences we have grown so accustomed to having all the time. Not until you feel like you have no control do you really understand this truth, that is always lingering in the back of the classroom with its hand held high, waiting for its turn to speak up.

 

Here are just a few snapshots of the utter devastation that Hurricane Sandy left in her wake . Entire beachfronts wiped out. In New York City, a crane dangles from a skyscraper. Down at the Jersey shore, a roller coaster is swallowed up by the Atlantic Ocean. Streets in beach towns that now look like rivers. Locally, large trees laying in yards with the roots still attached to the ground. And the story that amazed me most, train cars are swept off their rails onto the New Jersey turnpike by massive tidal waves.

 

My heart goes out to all of the families who are left homeless and without power. My family and I only lost electric for half a day, because we did not get hit by the full strength of the storm. What stays with me most from the storm, however, is being amazed by the sound of the wind that struck the house, as it howled like a freight train, sounding like at any minute it could blow right through the structure. Also, earlier in the evening, I felt so very defenseless as I went outside to move my van and was pelted by the fierce wind and the sideways rain.

 

We say, or at least I do at times, that it’s all in God’s hands. To be honest, at least from my tiny perspective, I think God allows storms, literally or figuratively, in our lives to occur to remind us He is the only one truly in control. It’s like the story in the Old Testament of the Bible about the prophet, Elijah. God is not in the wind or in all the other things Elijah encounters, God speaks to Elijah through a small still voice. I believe that God allows these outside forces to affect us in an effort to get our attention off ourselves and on Him, so we will listen when He speaks.

 

I guess what I‘m trying to say is tri-fold. Convenience is temporary, my compassion for others needs to remain constant and my trust in God needs to remain continuous regardless of when the wind blows.

Swavel