Storms--They Rolled In & I'm Still Learning

They said it would come, but you never know if it really will. So I slept. Mindless of the possibility of any truth, I closed my eyes and succumbed to the day's end. Until I heard the first of it. Thunder.

So I walk by braille and memory, to the living room. My eyes still too heavy to fully open. Plopping down on my comfy couch to listen to the news, the weatherman now giving a full-time update. I listen because my ears don't require any lifting like my eyelids do.

A possible tornado is reported on the ground far enough south of us for my continued attempt to halfway pay attention with my ears. In it I hear how extreme it is, a severe front. Big winds. Lots of rotations. It's moving fast and "Hurry up already!" is running through my mind.

Something said from the t.v. requires a look, a peeling back of eyelids. Another tornado warning, this time just south of friends and heading right for our area, my house. Ok, weatherman, you have my attention. Just when the t.v. goes out. Are you kidding me? A black screen stares back. (Un)great! But no problem, I still have my trusty computer for the National Weather's page. Yep. Confirmed, "tornado warning". I'm so thankful for the internet, until the power...goes out. All of it. This requires another look. Outside. Wind is whipping my pecan trees like rag dolls.

Precaution is the plan now, grabbing the kids to hang out in the center bathroom. Pillows, blankets, and a cell phone for a light, we sit in the bathroom. Ahem, my oldest now says, "Mom, I think we should pray." Of which I reply "Oh yea! Good idea!" (Should've been mine, I know.) So my Analytical guy says it short and to the point. After which I resume the waiting while I use the pot as my chair and a cell phone for light.

Hey, I still have my cell phone, with internet! Well, ok, the internet is too sloooow. So I use it to call my neighbors, who happen to be my parents and see what they're up too. I'm in business. They have a weather scanner running on batteries. So I get updates again. Just when we get totally...disconnected. Seriously? Too much interference and who knows what else. So now, the phone really is used just as a (flash)light. In the middle of a dark bathroom with me sitting on the pot, I have to be quiet and just listen. And trust. And wait. And just plain sit. I have a feeling I need to be here more often.

I know it's glaring. And really, why do I wait so long? I try to figure things out, thinking knowledge is better. Perhaps, I think it gives me a little control too. When really, I just need to stop and trust. Trust that I don't need to know everything. Stop looking for answers and look to Him for the answer. At times, prayer comes first and I overflow in it to Him, and other times, I'm caught up in information-gathering. It goes against our fleshy nature, to give it up,all up at all times, and give it all to Him. I don't want to wait for another storm outside my house or in my life to learn it. Nor do I want my own resources working my salvation. Thankfully, information is NOT God. And in the silence of it, I hear His voice as thunder. In the darkness of it, I see His power bolting in the sky. In the passing of it, I sense Him speaking of Who He is. And that took a pot-sitting night to be reminded of it.

For this Tuesday, I'm unwrapping dark bathrooms (& no electricity for 2 days). For more unwrappings, visit Emily's place at "Chatting At The Sky".


"Hear attentively the thunder of His voice,
And the rumbling that comes from His mouth.
He sends it forth under the whole heaven,
His lightning to the ends of the earth.
After it a voice roars;
He thunders with His majestic voice,
And He does not restrain them when His voice is heard.
God thunders marvelously with His voice;
He does great things which we cannot comprehend." Job 37:2-5