Chased by a Hurricane

Don called shortly after I woke this morning. As I strolled around our home, chatting with my phone in my left hand and a cup of coffee in my right, a text arrived: “USAA: We see you may be in the path of Hurricane Irma… Reply HELP for help.”

A hurricane warning? By text?

Since technology validated my concerns, I spent part of my day buying groceries and supplies. Traffic slowed the drive home, so I called my dad, who’d laughed off the same text when it arrived on his phone earlier in the day.

“Do you remember the story about when I was stuck on the USS Huntington being chased by Hurricane Betsy?” he asked.

“Vaguely,” I replied. “Remind me.”

I pulled into a CVS and headed to the back corner. There, I picked out a baby shower gift bag and card, while listening to dad.

“I graduated from the Naval Academy on on June 9^th,” he began. “Your mom and I married on June 19^th. For our honeymoon, we drove to Jacksonville, FL and set up our apartment. Somewhere around July 9^th, I took a train to Philly and then a plane to Rota, Spain, where I waited for almost three weeks to get a flight to my ship. During the first week of August, I flew to Palma, Mallorca and boarded my ship. We started a trans-Atlantic crossing the last week in August, so I finally got to greet your mom again on September 4^th.”

Whew.

“Two days later I went in for a normal work day and someone asked, ‘Do you have any clothes on the ship?’ When I said, ‘No,’ I was told to call my wife and have her bring some because the ship was sailing in three hours.”

With Hurricane Betsy heading to Jacksonville, the crew of the Huntington was forced to set sail again. But Betsy surprised everyone. Just as the ship made it to South Florida, she changed course, went south, and chased after those handsome sailors. Over the next three weeks, dad’s ship traveled west to the Keys, on toward the north side of Cuba, over to the Yucatan Peninsula, and then east to the south side of Cuba before heading north to Jacksonville.

Betsy eventually made landfall in New Orleans and dad made it back to mom.

While I laughed with my dad as he recalled being chased by a hurricane, there's nothing funny about the masses, who are running right now. 

Yes, the news ratchets up our anxiety levels if we're not careful, but with the recent series of events, it's hard not to take notice. 

Houston highways remain underwater. The Leeward Islands are flattened. Mexicans woke to the worst earthquake in a century. An estimated 40 million people have been displaced by floods in South Asia in the last month. And Irma hasn't even hit Florida yet. 

The scope of suffering is incomprehensible.

Yet, even as I write, I sense a deep stirring of the Holy Spirit. Something's going on that's much bigger than climate change and politics, calling us from self-indulgence to a life of abiding. Even in the storm. 

So, believers, rise up. Stand in faith wherever you are. Proclaim the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And more than that, be that goodness. Be that neighbor. Offer kindness. An open door. Or an hour of prayer in the middle of the night when worry's keeping you from slumber.

Battle against fear. Worship in the rain. Sing praise even as the wind blows. 

For, heaven is crying out: Hurricane force winds offer only a glimpse of the power that raised Jesus from the dead. And that power is available to you and me.

Are we being chased by a hurricane or pursued by a loving God? Stripped of our comfort to know Him more?

Oh how He longs for us to walk with Him and trust Him, right here, chased in the middle of the storm.

All photos courtesy of pixabay.com