Hurricanes and rising waters

2011 Hurricane Irene aftermath from Edward Martinez at Flickr.com

My apologies for not having my usual Monday morning post up for you, dear readers, but we lost power yesterday morning and have yet to get it back. We are operating the generator as needed, and so I am able to grab some internet while it runs.

I wrote most of this post yesterday, as the storm just began to wrap her powerful arms around us.

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Like so many other Americans, we have been riveted by the coverage of Hurricane Irene because this time we have a stake in the game.

We are directly in the path here in New England, and it is a bit disconcerting. I must admit this whole disaster preparedness is foreign to me, as we are used to hunkering down for a blizzard, not for a tropical storm.

We get out the shovels, have all our outerwear handy and dry, prep the cars by pulling the wipers up and away from the windshield so that they don’t freeze into place, and park all the vehicles facing outward so we can barrel through the large drifts.

Oh, and make lots of savory stews, chilis and chowders to warm our chilled bodies when we come in from hours and hours of shoveling the massive snowfall.

That is the kind of preparedness I know, but not what we need this time.

Instead, we have stripped the outside of our homes of anything that could become a guided missile, wrapped and taped up the fragile driveway lamps, shoehorned the vehicles into a protected corner close to the house, as far from the trees as possible, and even parked our truck at the bottom of our road. Although we live at a higher elevation so are not prone to flooding, the water that runs off the mountain can wreak havoc with the half mile of dirt road that takes us out to the paved highway.

We have been warned about the possibility of high winds, flooding and electrical outages, and are as prepared as we can be.

Now, we wait.

While we still have internet, I decide to soak up some goodness over at (in)courage, and read a wonderful post by Heather Gemmen Wilson titled Lament.

She quoted Psalm 69, which struck me as being so appropriate for today.

¹ Save me, O God,
for the waters have come up to my neck.
² I sink in the miry depths,
where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters;
the floods engulf me.
³ I am worn out calling for help;
my throat is parched.
My eyes fail,
looking for my God.

While many of us are not likely to experience a flood, even today, figuratively don’t we all find ourselves sometimes being engulfed by troubled waters in our lives, and feel as though God has left us to survive or perish on our own while He concentrates elsewhere?

That is the time that requires us to be faithful, to trust, when it is the hardest, when, sometimes, it seems He isn’t answering our prayers in just the way we had hoped, or at all.

It reminds me of an analogy by author E. L. Doctorow about  driving a car at night. He commented  that although we can only see as far as the headlights, that doesn’t mean that the rest of the road isn’t there, it’s just that we can’t see it. We know the destination is out there as well, but it just isn’t visible from where we stand.

Isn’t that what our faith is, as Hebrews 11:1 says, “being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see”?

Keep the faith today, and everyday, when it is easy, and especially when it requires all of your heart. I ask also for you to keep all of the folks impacted by Hurricane Irene in your prayers today.

Thank you, dear readers. It’s good to know you are out there.