If you live anywhere near Hurricane Helene’s parade route, and you’re not a tree surgeon, a power company lineman, or an insurance adjustor, you’re probably feeling rather insignificant this week. Helpless? Overwhelmed? Anxious? Exhausted? Even grateful, but not significant. This kind of natural disaster has a way of making man feel small.
We’ve seen massive oaks upended, towering pines tossed onto rooftops, rows of pecan trees leveled, chicken houses decapitated, telephone poles sheared, houses floating, mountains descending, walls collapsing, rivers rerouted, minivans crushed, roadways caving, towns swallowed by lakes, and flying trampolines from central Florida to northeast Tennessee.
We’ve delivered water, food, generators, gasoline, and prayers. And yet, it all feels so small. So, I sit here in front of a keyboard, physically tired and emotionally moored to this unfathomable weight with so little to say, but a compulsion to stay.
And life continues. Clients are calling. Bills need to be paid. Laundry needs to be done. Food must be found. Yards await cleaning. It’s as if the momentum we call life might just roll over us if we pause awestruck or overwhelmed too long.
My view of God so easily shrinks. I speak of Him as though He were right here OR over there, as if He were with one person and THEN with another. But then, how would He ever get to each of us feeling so insignificant in the aftermath of such a disaster? When so many need Him at once, how would He choose?
To poorly reference an A.W. Tozer quote –
If you dropped a bucket deep into the ocean, and the bucket represented one’s life, God would be represented by the water. He is before us, behind us, over us, and within us.
Spatially, God is everywhere. And yet, somehow, beyond my words or deepest thoughts, He is especially present with each of us.
Thankfully, God does not ask us to explain or even understand.
He simply asks us to believe.
Do you believe that God has been with you through the ups and downs of your life?
Do you believe that God is with you right now as you face pain or adversity?
Do you believe God will be with you as you face whatever lies ahead?
When believers say yes and mean it,
when we drink deeply from God’s presence, regardless of our circumstances,
when we allow His hope, love, peace, and strength to flow from within us,
others encounter God’s presence through us.
In that moment, our own insignificance reveals true significance.
* This was written last week, but I had no internet service.