As we stood in front of the large screen TV in the conference room, I was simply stunned and amazed. Without fail, each time I was scheduled for a particular women’s event, there seemed to be a severe Thunderstorm and Tornado in my area. Rain would pour. Trees came down. Streets flooded. Trucks overturned and traffic would be backed up for hours and on end.
As the chief-in-charge of the event, my cell phone would begin ringing off the hook about 3 hours before the event’s start time. All of the attendees who were to come would call, multiple times and text.
“Is it still on?”, “I’m not sure where I am. Can you help me?” “The sirens are going off here.” “What are we going to do?” “I’m not coming.” And so the calls would continue steadily for three hours.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine (not a person of faith by any means) who was monitoring the weather system with me on the TV, was watching me field calls and texts at a frantic pace. Listening in as caller after caller kept cancelling, at one point he stopped and said, “Isn’t your event a ‘Christian’ thing? Aren’t they supposed to have ‘faith’?” I was stumped. He was right. I certainly did not want any of my girls to place themselves in harms way, but he had me there.
I knew others would make the trek regardless, as they were even driving in from other states for this one particular evening.I had to be there for whoever showed up. I knew I had to keep moving forward. But his words haunted me.
I was sharing with a family member, before all the chaos ensued, about how this situation always happens. The bad weather hits about 3-4 hours before our event’s start time. Once the event begins, the weather is usually fine. The day before the event is always nice, and the day after is dandy too. What’s a girl to do?!
Just about the time I was going to be heading out the door, my grandmother sent an email…
“We were watching the Weather Channel today… and one of us said ‘Nashville is going to have really bad weather tonight. We will have to pray for your event that everyone gets there safely and back. So, whatever happens, you know we are praying for you. Ps 121: 8 ‘The Lord will protect your coming in and going out!'” So off I went.
That’s a Christian thing. Nuff said.
S.
