Posted on 08/15/2020 5:17:05 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
I have lived most of my life in Cedar Rapids Iowa.
Cedar Rapids is as about as Midwestern as you can get. Situated in lush, verdant Eastern Iowa, along the Cedar River. The people are known for a hard work ethic, mostly responsible, sober minded, with midwestern sensibilities, many are church goers, and generally a conservative outlook on life for the most part. (Obviously the toxic culture is eating away from all of that here as everywhere else).
Every Summer in Iowa, there are often severe thunderstorms, and even tornadoes, as the arctic fronts from Canada sweep down the natural funnel formed by America’s two North/South Mountain Ranges, (The Rockies to the West, and the Allegheny to the East), forming something called “tornado Alley”. Tornadoes form when Arctic air confronts the hot updrafts from the gulf of Mexico.
Midwesterners are not unfamiliar with clearing up the devastation and debris of Tornadoes every year, that is just part of living in this part of the country.
What happened last Monday was not a Tornado, it was an inland Hurricane! Straight line winds , in unrelenting gusts up to 120 miles per hour! Not for the ten frantic minutes or so that Tornadoes usually wreak their damage, these winds raged for a good forty-five minutes to an hour!
I have been through many tornado storms, and even cleaned up the dairy farm of a family who went to our church, after it was iot by a tornado. It looked like a bomb went off, as we picked up shattered pieces of buildings, metal sheeting wrapped around the trees, (One was twice wrapped around a tree by the wind, I have no idea how that happened).
The buildings were ruined. Windows, doors, and massive limbs and trunks of once stately trees, lay about as if they were the remains of a Civil War battlefield. A line of older trees had lined the long driveway leading up to the farm, and at about twenty feet up, they were snapped off all along the line, as if a giant skill saw ripped up through the line.
This is the power of a tornado. We are all familiar with it, and most Midwesterners have at one time or another seen a bright day turn black. (or even an eerie pale green) and had to wait out these storms in a basement somewhere, praying for them to end.
But as a lifelong Iowan, I have never seen such a storm as what I witnessed last week. We saw (from our basement vantage point) Huge trees snapped off at the ground and tossed by the strait line howling winds as if a child had thrown a feather in the breeze. A drive through Cedar Rapids after the storm showed thirty or forty foot Oak or Maple Trees knocked over, pulled up by the roots and in some cases the ball of the tree that was normally underground, upended along wth the concrete sidewalks which once went along side of it, and the ground like a disturbed carpet, still covering the ball of the tree, only now on it’s side.
Transformers were exploding , power lines were snapped off, Billboards set in Concrete and held up by iron girders, were flattened to the ground, as were huge traffic lights, street lights, company signs, Trees and even some buildings. Roofs were ripped off of houses, and in many cases Brick facades and even brick walls were stripped off of buildings.
Google Cedar Rapids, destruction, Dericho, and you will begin to see the monumental destruction which occurred across the whole Midwest, from somewhere in Nebraska, straight across to Ohio, a stretch of about a thousand miles.
We have to ask, if we have any spiritual sensitivity at all, “What is God saying to us in this storm?”. God speaks through things like this. He speaks through ordinary natural events, but this one is extra-ordinary. I learned a new word, “Derricho”. I had never heard it before, but a Derricho is a Land hurricane.
God Is telling us, These are the Last days…
Hurricanes usually occur along coasts or out at sea, but we just experienced one two thousand miles inland in any direction.
Jesus said the last days would be characterized by many unusual natural disasters.
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(Luke 21:25-26)
I live on ten acres, with my family. On one end is a building and parking lot for our church fellowship, and I live on the back end. Thankfully God spared us, our house and family, none were hurt, and for this we praise God.
I did lose seven huge trees. We are currently in the process of cleaning them up, as is our entire city. I planted most of those trees myself, (well alright, I did it with my Sons). One of them I plucked out of the swampy ditch along the highway and transplanted it as a little sapling, not even as round as may little finger. It grew to over thirty feet tall, and I have to admit I loved it, and the other trees I planted. We delighted in the growth, the shade, the thought that something so weak and frail could grow into something so majestic and beautiful.
There is a special joy in growing things, and participation in cultivation of life. Like those trees, many a pastor has labored among God’s church, working with other dedicated ones to unite the body, to center everything around Christ, to facilitate regular worship and prayer, teaching, fellowship and even sacrifice. It doesn’t come automatically.
A wind can come and really test all of that, a wind of doctrine, or immorality, perhaps a tornado of avarice, or enmity, jealousy, party Spirit, eventually a hurricane will come, the final testing of all that has been planted, watered, nurtured, cried over and prayed for… only that which is truly rooted in Jesus, (Love and loyalty to Jesus) will stand.
The LORD Gives and The Lord Takes away, Blessed be the name of the LORD!
But when God blew his wind, they all fell down. He graciously preserved our lives this time, but shouldn’t we fear Him who has such power?
As I drove through our little city, and saw such devastation, and the people just standing there that first day, looking at it. Trees leaning on partially crushed roofs, caused cars, huge setons of sod and root upended by fallen trees, an privacy fences utterly blown apart, everywhere.
I realized anew, as I looked at the now opened view of people’s yards, the ‘American Dream’. That is the idea that anyone willing to work hard, can build their own little sanctuary; a comfortable home, a walled off piece of property, a swimming pool, a well tended hedge or garden, by which to end a day in a place of peace and beauty. This is very similar to the vision of the good life as envisioned by the Prophets of the Bible, “Every man under his own vine, every man under his fig tree”.
There is nothing wrong with that, I think it a beautiful ideal, partially realized by so many here.
But God blew His wind and tore much of it apart. Swimming pools and grills and lawn chairs and deck furniture, torn up and laid open as wooden fence pieces lay scattered in every direction.
A Sanctuary is only valid if God is there in the midst of it. Without God in our lives, nothing is sacred. All false Edens will come apart, especially in the pressures of the last days.
The Lesson We learned From our Chickens…
On the day that the storm suddenly broke in on us, our grandchildren ran out to try and round up the 16 chickens and get them into the coop, ( the one my Son in law Matt built). Have you ever tried to round up frantic chickens while the wind is blowing and the thunder is starting? We could only get four of them into the coop, the other twelve would just have to fend for themselves, but we would pray for them.
While we were in the basement watching the scariest storm we had ever seen, just out our basement window, there were constant prayers going up for those wayward chickens,(who wouldn’t go into the coop). When the storm stopped, we saw that the coop itself had been blown over on its side and even had been rolled.
How would we break it to our dear grandchildren, that the chickens had died?
We opened the overturned coop to find four badly frightened hens clustered together, but unhurt. Then as the winds died down the 12 other chickens began to emerge from the tall grass, clucking and pecking as they came! How we all praised God for answering prayer.
Is there a lesson in this folksy story?
I think so, to him who has ears to hear. God is faithful. He cares, even about little things. Jesus told us that a bird cannot fall out of a tree without God taking note of it, and that we are worth far more than many birds.
A storm is brewing spiritually, breaking soon on all of the world. As my little grandchildren prayed for those chickens, we must pray for our loved ones, especially those who have left church, and are out in the elements of this world.
Faithful ministers have long been trying to gather people into the fellowship… the church… but in this individualistic, self oriented culture, it is very difficult to gather people, as difficult as herding chickens or perhaps even more. A Chicken coop isn’t an exciting or entertaining place to be, but it is a place where Chickens can ride out a storm.
Public worship, Bible teaching, admonition, correction and instruction in righteousness are not what this generation thinks is exciting, stimulating or even entertaining, thus people think nothing of blowing off church.
Church is despised and ill thought of in our toxic culture, even among many who profess to be Christians. There is a crisis of authority as well, everyone is their own expert, and do not want to let Pastors and Shepherds truly be Shepherds. God meant for his people to be church, we are sheep, we are to remain in fellowship, especially when the Storm hits full. But there are some who we will just have to pray for, that in God’s mercy they will see, and make it through the Storm, sheerly through grace. God is good.
So glad you are OK, Pastor Bill.
I lived through the outrageous hurricane season of 2005 in Florida, and I know whereof you speak!
I’d go for the pruning story. The weak branches in my tree were found and blown away. New growth in the spring.
Same for the church. Needed some pruning..................
See Hurricane Elvis 2003 or thereabouts. Same thing happened to Memphis.
I needed that encouraging reminder. Thank you.
It's actually derecho, meaning "straight" in Spanish. They are not very common, but they mainly occur over the plains states and on other plains around the world, and they usually take place in the summer.
Elvis started near Memphis and lasted to Corinth, West to East, a swath 100 miles North to South and 100 miles East to West. The damage and power outages were commensurate with a Class I-2 Hurricane.
I was out in the storm. I have never seen anything like it. Glad you were safe.
thank you...once a year we trek to Florida to be by the Ocean
Everyone is wearing masks but who recognizes that Purim time is here. Huh? Purim is in the early spring.
Well it is notable that Halloween and Purim are compared by people who "don't know any better" because of the seeming similarity with the costumes and masks.
Maybe not so different, because Halloween is when ghosts are swinging from trees and somebody's always freaking out about supposed racism nooses.
It ties in with your storm account because that's what it is. Fall is the time of gathering, and the Messiah is all about the gathering. The winds generally whip up in the Fall to mark the seasons' changing.
Thanks Ezekiel
We had one of those about 14 months ago here is Dallas.
They claim it was 70 mph winds but it was at least 85-90 mph.
When I was a kid we were living in Baton Rouge when hurricane Betsy came through so I know what 90 mph winds look like.
When the storm hit here in Dallas I was working in the back yard and noticed it was getting dark fast, like about one minute to the next.
I grabbed the tools, dumped them inside and went through the house to the front door and opened it to look in the direction it was coming from.
I took one look and shut and locked the door, went to the closet and grabbed the emergency backpack and hung out in the middle of the house.
I went into the kitchen once to look out back and I could not see the ally 30 feet away.
When it let up I went and looked again. A 50 foot tree was down in the back yard about 15 feet from the house and the transformer on the pole in the ally had exploded and only parts of it were still connected to the pole.
I never heard a thing the wind was making so much noise.
Dallas was shut off for at least 4-5 days just like someone had flipped a switch.
We had moved to Dallas when I was in the 5th grade and I have NEVER seen anything like that here.
.
May 8th 2009.
We were hit with a Super Derecho.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2009_Southern_Midwest_derecho
There is a short clip as the storm formed and moved across the midwest.
A Derecho is actually more common than most people think. My sister actually experienced two in one year, though in two different states, Maryland and Minnesota. Both did damage to the house she was in because of fallen trees. After one destroyed millions of trees in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota and Canada a number of years back, I did some research on them. It seems in “Tornado Alley” they can strike any one area about once a year, though not always with such devastating severity as described here.
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