Storms of 2011

This is a week that will go down in St. Louis history. It is also a week that I will forever remember.

Storms ripped through central Illinois on Tuesday night. I was in Springfield IL and was leaving my patient's house at 6pm, just as the storm was coming up highway 55. I decided to leave and brave the rain. After driving just 5 miles south to Auburn the rain was coming down so hard that I could not see the road. I began to pull off the road and it started to hail - sideways. The wind was blowing about 70 mph. I was exiting the highway when my car started shaking. I could hardly keep it on the road. I finally made it off the exit ramp and under the awning at the gas station. I sat there for almost 20 minutes before I could make it into the gas station. The hail had stopped and wind had slowed. The trucker walking in behind me stated that his truck was on two wheels coming off the road. I "camped" at the Mobil for over an hour, ate Subway, made some friends, then ventured back on my way. The highway had been shut down due to downed powerlines and a tornado blew some barns down 5 miles south of where I was at. Four and a half hours later I made it home.

Fast forward three days and we are entering Good Friday service at church. The sirens begin going off, but we enter church anyway. Two hours later we get home and turn on the news. Tornados had travelled right over the church we were in and touched down in Bridgeton, Ferguson, and Granite City, levelling entire neighborhoods. The airport was hit and shut down indefinitely. Thousands of people lost power, but hundreds lost everything. My heart just breaks for these families. The pictures on the news show homes down to the subfloor. Cars were on top of garages. A trampoline was tangled in the power lines. Whole trees were uprooted. Splintered wood was everywhere. Memories were lost. Posessions were lost. Treasured heirlooms were lost. But praise the Lord, not one life was lost. Within 60 seconds lives were completely changed. With Easter fresh on my mind, so is the sacrifice that Jesus made, so is the infinite power that He possesses, so is His might and control. We can build buildings and He can tear them down. We can make plans and He can change their direction. We can buy possessions and He can take them away. We can pretend to be in charge and He can take over in a heartbeat. Tornados scare me because they remind me of how small and insignificant I am and what little control I have over anything. But they also remind me of just how "in control" God is and how thankful I am to be a believer that has hope in so much more than material possessions.

This is a week that many will remember for a long time.