The Snowstorm

Luke 8:23 “But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.”

The impending storm has the media all up in arms causing people to panic using words like historic, devastating, menacing and catastrophic. While the media likes to blow things out of proportion I personally, having lived on the east coast for 37 years of my life, can add simple words to tell the truth of the matter like immobilizing, standstill and simply put, a snowstorm.

My mother tells me they have already closed schools for the day (Friday) and the storm isn’t going to hit until tonight! They are calling for one inch of snow today, 8-12 this evening with high winds, and tomorrow an additional 10-14 inches! While this storm will put traffic at a standstill and immobilize the millions that are crammed into Maryland it is also going to affect millions of others from the surrounding states. While a lot of people are joking saying:
“It’s a snowstorm deal with it.”
“So much for Global Warming!”
“I guess Climate Change was a farce.” And the ever popular,
“You haven’t seen a snowstorm until you lived in ______!” put any northern state in the blank.

What will be on the rise during this storm I can assure you, will be ignorance, speed demons, hurried people, car wrecks, selfish antics and greed.

What I’d like to SEE during this storm and will happen but on rare occasions is compassion, concern and consideration. Trust me, I’ve lived through quite a few of these colossal blizzards in my lifetime. 

The people in the North will make fun of the people in the South for their inability to handle ice and snow as if they deal with that stuff all the time. I lived in Texas a few years and no, they can’t handle snow and ice only because they’re lucky (or not) to see the stuff maybe once in ten years! Where the people in the North have had to deal with storms of massive proportions yearly.

When Steven bought his Ford Explorer years ago in Texas, it wasn’t a four-wheel drive but when we got to Nebraska and had to buy a new truck it is all they sold, 4 wheel drives. When asked WHY the difference, the seller simply put, ‘they don’t need 4 wheel drives in the south.’

As our self-centered ME generation plows ahead all that they can think to do is make fun of people? Seriously? Every storm is different but rest assured there WILL be casualties, there will be homes, houses and cars destroyed, backs will be injured, elderly will be left powerless and the homeless will suffocate and die. And all you can do is poke fun? Maybe you’re also proud of the person you’ve become?

It seems like an all to often knee jerk reaction making fun of the less fortunate but it is getting really old this day and age, in my book. I remember more times than once taking eight hours to shovel out a car and its parking spot only to move the car and someone else jump into your hard work. I remember bailing out three, four, ten neighbors at a time so they could see the outside world in the midst of a two foot snow barrier and yes I remember taking the elderly food during these rough storms! 

But today? People will shoot you for a parking spot, elderly will be left to die, neighbors will build walls of discontent to have everything THEIR way. That’s just the way the world is these days.

Eight inches of snow in Nashville Tennessee? While all of you Climate Change scoffers sit there and laugh please be aware of the drastic changes going on around you that you can SEE if only you had eyes to see. Climate Change by definition states: a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.

Now I have not done any scientific research on Climate Change but I am not so stupid that I can’t SEE visually what is going on around me! Let me just say, the week of December 25th, Baltimore saw temps in the seventies and had people jogging around the Inner Harbor in shorts and tank tops and note that this current blizzard is the FIRST snowstorm of their winter season!

Hurricanes raging in the Atlantic in January, snow in Texas, El Paso no less, tornadoes in many places that’s not normal for JANUARY, Fracking causing earthquakes in Oklahoma and yet you still laugh?

We the people are destroying the earth and all you can do is sit and frantically post silly BS on facebook and twitter? I sit in awe of your selfish ego. Compassion is more than just reading and reposting what you can on the internet. Loving God is more than just spouting a few words of praise. Being Christ-like is more than just being nice to a person. It SHOULD be a way of life and for some it IS a way of life. 

My prayers go out to the people in the midst of the storms. My prayer is for them to look at the world and slow down. The world, hopefully, will still be here next week so what is the hurry to grab bread, milk and toilet paper? Remember, to love one another as you love yourself! If you can’t love someone you’ve never met, you have very little love for yourself. 

Mark 12:31 “And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”