Last Saturday/Sunday New Jersey endured a major Hurricane - IRENE! It was quite an experience
filled with many observations and lessons (some practical, some spiritual). Here are a few...
- People truly freak out when they hear bad weather is coming. Stores where stripped bare of food, water, and batteries. Obviously, it's great to be prepared but generally people need to SETTLE DOWN. I guess its the fearfulness in mankind's heart that causes this panic.
- I enjoy modern conveniences (A/C, running hot water, lights, showers, etc.) but I wonder if I've become a bit spoiled when it comes to the creature comforts the Western world offers.
- I am in dire need of a sump pump. We had water in our basement (2nd time in the 2+ years we've lived here). Once things settle down from the storm I'll have someone out to give me a quote.
- Crisis draws people closer together. I've had a number of people comment to me about how they were able to connect with previously unknown neighbors as a result of this storm. We tend to do all we can to avoid suffering or any type of inconvenience but in these trials we find a fellowship that had alluded us heretofore. This is what the Bible calls the "fellowship of suffering".
- Many hands really do make light work. Kerrie and I were up at 4:30am sucking up water with the dry-vac and carting buckets of water upstairs to pour down the kitchen sink. It was exhausting. Once our kids woke up (I woke them up) and started to help, the whole process was a lot less daunting.
- We often pass by little blessings in life. Here's one I just rec'd...Thousands of people in our area lost power during and after the storm. In our neighborhood (over 400 homes) one side of the neighborhood is still without power while the other half didn't have so much as a blip of the lights. My backyard neighbors (literally 50 feet from my house) are without power while we are not. I count myself very fortunate and am extremely thankful that we did not lose power. No power = no wet/dry vac = flooded basement. I don't know why my power stayed on and others didn't. I'm certainly not more worthy of power than they are but for whatever reason, God has given me this blessing...
- Because God has blessed me with electricity I see it as my responsibility to minister to those without. We've baked cookies for our powerless neighbors, offered the use of electricity, hot showers, and outlets for the charging of cell phones. We are blessed so that we can be a blessing.
- Here is my number 1 take away from Irene - Early last week my family and I happened to be on the Outerbanks of NC on vacation. We watched the track of the storm with great intensity. On Thursday the area where we were vacationing issued a mandatory evacuation and so we packed up all our "stuff" and headed back to NJ at 3am on Friday morning. Needless to say this was a real pain in the neck as our family vacation was cut short. However, had we not been made to leave NC and return home we would not have been here to pump off the water as it rose in our basement. We would have returned home to a flooded basement and many ruined possessions. God used a truly minor inconvenience to move us to the point where he could help us avoid a much larger problem. Bottom line - our perspective on life is so limited. Trust that your heavenly Father has your best interest at heart.
Thanks Irene for all the little life lessons you've taught me over the past couple of days. I'm better for it!

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