Storm-Shelter

 In all the years of calling this arctic place home, I don't think I've ever seen the winds howl and blow like they did this past Sunday. For days, the weather forecasters had been calling for brutal weather - unseasonable weather - to move in and shake up our weekend. Articles on the local news channel's website were warning residents to prepare for power outages, secure loose items that might blow away, and get ready to hunker down. This storm was going to be a doozy. 

But there was one thing: it was supposed to hit overnight and into the afternoon, potentially impacting all of us churchgoers and regularly-scheduled services. When I checked my phone about 9am that morning, the pastor had sent out a message to everyone that said the roads and conditions weren't too bad and services were still on as usual. But within an hour, he followed up with word that things were starting to deteriorate rapidly. Church was still going to be held on schedule along with the monthly potluck afterward, but there would be assistance with getting people in the door and parking vehicles to avoid any potential injuries and issues. 

By the time I arrived at church, the wind was already blowing at a rate I'd rarely seen. Trees were starting to bend low and it felt like one was in the middle of a hurricane. Rain had started pouring down and was being blown sideways. I was thankful I'd secured by hair with hairspray that morning or else it would've looked it had been stirred with a stick! I wasn't sure how many would brave the weather and roads to come to services but, one by one, they kept coming in the door. As we all settled in, the lights were beginning to flicker a bit - the winds threatening to take out the power. One could feel all our minds were only partly on the service as it began. 

Hymns and songs began to rise as voices sang in the middle of the storm and I was reminded of an image I'd seen earlier in the week of a handful of christians singing a requiem through their tears amid the rubble of the devastating fires in Southern California. And I thought of how our God is a refuge and shelter for us in all our storms and praise is the pathway to peace always. One could sense all of us were trying to rest in that as the winds shook the church and rain was flung against the battened-down windows. As I looked outside, I noticed a tree fall as if it had been plucked out and cast onto the ground by unseen fingers. 

The gusts continued to pelt and pound the church building, and we all fought the distraction and tried to focus on the Lord. Partway through, there was a loud "boom" outside and we all couldn't help but stop momentarily to see what had caused the thundering sound. Turns out, it was the church steeple! The winds were so hitting so hard that it had literally torn off the steeple from its base and tossed it onto the church lawn like it was nothing. What remained of it was rolling around on the ground, almost as if a hidden force were trying to shake us to our very core. All of us looked around as we realized nobody had any control over this storm except the Creator Himself. All we could do was stick together and ride it out. A couple people went outside to retrieve the steeple and bring it into the building. And we continued to sing... to press on with our praises. 

Midway through the sermon, the power finally went out and all the light that was left came from the emergency lights and the natural light through the windows. The online streaming was shut down and so was the sound system. The pastor pulled out his phone so he could see his notes and continue on. He told us all he'd try to be brief but then the sweet voice of one of our elderly members spoke up and told him not to hurry - we were all in this for the long haul... and the delicious food afterwards. While the ladies downstairs figured out how to heat and keep the food warm without ovens, microwave, etc., we listened and prayed our way through the remainder of the service. 

As I was silently praying for safety through it all, I felt a voice in my spirit remind me: when the Bible often speaks of the wind, it's evidence of a move of God, and I heard the words come to me over and over: winds of change. This is the sign that God is showcasing His might and is no silent Being. The One before whom nations and peoples and all created things bow is showing that everything can be brought to its knees with one stroke of His powerful hand. And suddenly, the wind went from being an enemy to being a friend because of Who is behind it. I realized there is a strange comfort that comes from knowing you are being sheltered in the secret place as God hides you in His wings when the storm-winds howl. 

When the devastation rages, the shadow of the Almighty is the place to be. And when one knows that the shaking has come at His command, somehow one is okay walking through it. 

The power never came back on the rest of the service, and we all partook of our shared meal together downstairs to the glow of flashlights and window-light. Yet the intimacy I felt as we experienced the storm together reminded me that God never asks us to walk through any storm alone. Lonely it may certainly feel but the truth is that we always loved and comforted in the midst, and He gives us one another to make the shaking a little less scary when it comes. To walk through any winds of change or hardship is to see community played out in ways you never knew. To look around that room and still hear the laughter and the conversation and the love made it better for everyone and to also know that we all chose to be here anyway... even when we could have stayed home and been more comfortable. The hard way is always worth braving. 

As the storm passed by later that afternoon and we all went our separate ways, we knew we'd witnessed something memorable... a moment in time none of us would ever forget. Pictures began to pour in online as stories of the storm surfaced: a roof torn off a house as its residents were having breakfast inside, a barn roof collapsing onto a tractor housed inside, a pedestrian bridge collapsing and subsequently closing the highway for a few hours. The tales of this storm were crazy! But the one thing that mattered is that everyone was safe. God heard our prayers for protection and I realized that this is often how it goes: we may ask for safety and think that it's God's responsibility to protect us by removing the threat or the pain when in reality, He just wants to show us Himself in the midst and prove to us the presence of His peace. He won't often take away the storm, but He will care for us and be our shelter all the way through. That is why we can sing and rest when the winds howl heavy. At no point are we not safe and never will we ever be not loved.