Welcome to my blog, or should I say to the ramblings of an old man. I doubt that my ramblings are of much value, but at least I have an opportunity to share them.  So, please be kind and humor me. If nothing else of value stands out in these thoughts, I hope that you at least sense the value I place on a daily walk with the Lord.  That walk is what has provided me with motivation and a sense of purpose throughout my lifetime.  My prayer is that you, too, are experiencing this direction and joy in daily living which is available to everyone who puts his trust in Christ.  So, thanks again for joining me.  Please don't go without leaving some comments here so I can get to know you better as our paths intersect today in this blog.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Helpless

There are many things that affect our lives which are far beyond our control.  One of those things is the weather.   Now most of the time our thoughts are about "Is it going to rain?" or maybe "Is it going to snow?"   Will the weather affect our plans?  And if it rains, we just readjust or cancel our plans.  But sometimes the weather is much more serious and there is nothing we can do about it.  Major snowstorms can be devastating, especially when the power goes out and nobody can get out.  I remember a few bad ones in my lifetime - one in 1958 that was the worst and another in 1996 when my granddaughter was born.  I think they should have named her Storm. But I'm also thinking about floods, hurricanes, and tornados.  I feel for the folks out west who run the risk of losing everything because of the massive flooding.  My parents lived through terrible flooding in Sunbury decades ago.  They had sad experiences of preparing, enduring, and cleaning up afterwards.  Then there are devastating hurricanes.  Fortunately there is some advance warning for these and you can evacuate or board up your belongings and hope that things are there afterwards.  We have lived through a few hurricanes in this area and it is a helpless feeling.   But I don't think there is anything as bad as facing a tornado.  They come so quickly, are totally devastating, and are over so quickly.  We have experienced several around us in Millersville in recent years.  One came a couple of days after my knee surgery in 2000.  And I felt so helpless because I was really unable to walk and move to the basement.  Had it hit our house I would have flown away in my lazy-boy recliner.  Another tornado unexpectedly hit the county on Sunday causing several million dollars in damage.  We felt the rain, wind, and hail that surrounded it, but the devastation missed us.  Unfortunately, my son's home, north of Lititz, sustained considerable damage from the large hail.  But the weather is out of our control and it sometimes is very scary.  These unwanted storms poses one of those unanswerable questions - "Why does God allow this to happen?"  This question falls into the same category as "Why do good people suffer?"   We'll never really know the answer to these questions, but we can know the One who has these things under His control.  And while He may not take us away from these experiences, He will walk through them with us.  He has said that He'd never leave us nor forsake us - and "never" includes times of storms and suffering.  God is good - all the time.

No comments: