Last week deadly tornadoes swept the Southeast taking with it nearly 350 lives.
As unreal as this sounds, it is more real than I ever imagined or wanted it to feel. Deadly tornadoes only happen in movies set in Kansas. They are only told about in stories about people we don't know. That's how I always imagined disastrous tornadoes and other storms. I wish this idea of mine was true, but it's not. Last Wednesday, an F5 tornado hit the city of Tuscaloosa along with multiple other smaller cities in the Southeast region. Luckily, none of my friends or family were majorly affected, but hearing and seeing the destruction has been so heart breaking.
This past weekend I drove through Alabama & Mississippi to attend my brother's graduation in Starkville, Mississippi. Seeing the damage as I approached Tuscaloosa, the more humbled down I became. I decided not to drive down McFarland but took the overpass to North Port to avoid traffic. However, I saw more than enough. The overpass to North Port goes right over 15th....where most of the damage took place. Cars in ditches, stacks of rubbish, the heartbroken look on people's faces. The whole vibe of the city was dismantling.
A few months ago, I heard a sermon from Andy Stanley about not only praying....but praying boldly. I think about it almost every time I pray now. It comes so easy to pray for things that we have some sense of control over, and things that we don't go unmentioned because we are not sure God can really meet these needs. Trust is essential for our relationship with God. So my challenge for myself, is to pray for things out of this world and believe with all my heart that they can be achieved. If no other time than this, we should pray boldly for the South and all affected by the tornadoes that happened last week, because God will meet these needs.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Heb 4:16
As unreal as this sounds, it is more real than I ever imagined or wanted it to feel. Deadly tornadoes only happen in movies set in Kansas. They are only told about in stories about people we don't know. That's how I always imagined disastrous tornadoes and other storms. I wish this idea of mine was true, but it's not. Last Wednesday, an F5 tornado hit the city of Tuscaloosa along with multiple other smaller cities in the Southeast region. Luckily, none of my friends or family were majorly affected, but hearing and seeing the destruction has been so heart breaking.
This past weekend I drove through Alabama & Mississippi to attend my brother's graduation in Starkville, Mississippi. Seeing the damage as I approached Tuscaloosa, the more humbled down I became. I decided not to drive down McFarland but took the overpass to North Port to avoid traffic. However, I saw more than enough. The overpass to North Port goes right over 15th....where most of the damage took place. Cars in ditches, stacks of rubbish, the heartbroken look on people's faces. The whole vibe of the city was dismantling.
A few months ago, I heard a sermon from Andy Stanley about not only praying....but praying boldly. I think about it almost every time I pray now. It comes so easy to pray for things that we have some sense of control over, and things that we don't go unmentioned because we are not sure God can really meet these needs. Trust is essential for our relationship with God. So my challenge for myself, is to pray for things out of this world and believe with all my heart that they can be achieved. If no other time than this, we should pray boldly for the South and all affected by the tornadoes that happened last week, because God will meet these needs.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Heb 4:16
