Lessons from the Atlanta Storm, Pt. II

The January storm has left many unpleasant and challenging consequences. For example, at the time of writing the city's Department of Solid Waste is entangled with unpaid workers claiming they were promised to be paid for their time away from work. The employees maintain they were willing but unable to report for duty due to the unsafe driving conditions. Many private sector companies, lacking an inclement weather policy covering disruptions of such magnitude, have also had to decide how to treat their employees' absence. The police department blames its unresponsiveness to many emergencies on a lack of chains for its car tires. The city's coffers are out of more than $5 million. And, as if these were not bad enough, the mayor and other city officials are continually at the receiving end of the blame for being unprepared and inept in their overall handling of the crisis. Overall, a dark and deep malaise of finger-pointing and frustration hovers over the ATL.

Yet, there is overhanging over this city.

For six days I marveled at how my community was quickly transformed from their dull, brown winter colors into a motionless blanket of unrelenting whiteness. It was a captivating sight. I was almost transfixed by the new, implacable hard covering, a monolithic mass proudly defying man's valiant efforts at removal. We all sat and beheld it! Of course the world complained and protested why is this happening to me!? What am I going to do now? It's so boring staying at home. Many complained of suffering from claustrophobia and even called television stations enquiring of possible mall openings so they could escape the cruel confines of their homes. I call this the inane vanity of radical depravity. Here it is that in spite of the fact that people were losing life and limb on dicey roads and regardless of the fervent pleadings of officials for us to stay at home, some were deliberately striving to do the opposite– to risk harm and danger in order to satisfy their dark, wanton craving.

The larger question is what did we learn? City officials learned and solidly vowed that they will have to be more prepared the next time such a disaster strikes. But surely there has to be more than simply physical preparations of collecting more food and firewood; stocking up flashlight batteries; filling up our gas tanks, etc. Surely there has to be more than this! I agree: the key word here is prepare/preparation. Why do I say this? I use the word in the sense that reaches far beyond the immediate and the foreseeable. I'm not trying to spiritualize the storm but I was seriously reminded of the Lord's rebuke to the troubled prophet Habakkuk, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” Hab 2:14. I know I might be treading on thin ice here –pun intended – but I really did reflect on the coming time when the Lord will appear more suddenly than did the storm, even as a thief in the night. At that time his majestic self-revelation will be so sudden that even the most gifted meteorologists and their sophisticated, top-ranked, high-tech equipment will not be able to spot him on their radar screen. It was a time for me to reflect on the divine promise of the Second Coming of Christ when the Shekinah glory will emblazon the entire creation. Then, some will be ushered by the Righteous Judge to the right hand of the father in heaven to dwell with him in everlasting, unimaginable joy while others will be dispatched to an eternal, conscious punishment of incalculable proportions. In both cases God's glory will be seen in its ultimate perfection.

Like Israel, Atlanta and the rest of creation is continually charged to "prepare to meet your God… For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth-- the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!" Amos 4:12-13.

This is a visitation whose preparation requires not the stockpiling of physical food that perishes but the possession of food that endures to eternal life, the Bread of Heaven. The former is acquired by our purchases, the latter by his purchase with his blood. The former is the result of our work, the latter, the work of God which is that we believe on his Son Jesus Christ. Jn 6:29-32. How can we best prepare for this (his) inexorable unveiling? The ultimate storm? By ensuring that we place all our trust for this life and for the life to come in him alone who can still the storm by his sovereign, omnipotent voice saying, "Peace! Be still!" This is the most important challenge posed by the storm.

Lessons from the Atlanta Storm, Pt. I

During the week of January 9, 2011, the state of Georgia was subjected to a vicious winter storm. The capital of Atlanta, along with other cities, towns and neighborhoods, was virtually shut down as the storm moved through with a fierceness whose gravity eluded the meteorologists and shocked the ill-prepared city administrators. The city was crippled: businesses were closed; educational institutions were shut; crucial services such as medical, transportation, etc., were curtailed; employees from all sectors were for the most part confined to their homes. The pervasive helplessness was redolent of the very old movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still." One could say that we were truly the frozen chosen… or perhaps, the chosen frozen.

In fulfilling their civic responsibilities, the Police and Fire Department spokespersons, weathermen and other broadcasters, were very busy, operating with round the clock consistency, providing citizens with up-to-date reports of road closings, accidents, warnings and sound advice. Above all of their fervent admonitions, the requirement to stay at home and to keep off the roads rang out with the loudest and largest urgency. Now, well, what do you know? Like Lot who was bidden by the angels to hurry out of Sodom and Gomorrah, many motorists thought this was a joke and continued driving at normal levels of speed. It was very sickening to see them slipping, sliding and skipping over the icy surfaces, crashing into other vehicles, guardrails, trees and ditches. I called this the reckless mobility of radical depravity. This is what it was as many, with hearts hardened to the warnings and perils, ignored the very clear and obvious danger and pursued their own path which ended in damage of limb and property, as well as, in some cases, destruction of life. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Pro 16:25

Yes, the storm was terrible and yes the city was severely crippled. However, through it all, was there some transcendent truth that, lifted out perspective and even comforted our cold bodies and troubled hearts? Yes. Let's remember what the Lord told the puzzled Job in chapter 38 of that book. In a series of rapid-fire rhetorical questions that were in essence a confrontation to shut the mouths of Job and his "friends", the Lord pointed to himself as the sovereign, omnipotent and good Creator of all. Concerning the snow and its allies he sternly demanded of Job, " "Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'? The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.” (vv. 28-35). The summary statement of it all is in v. 33, "Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?"

Yes, the all-wise God whose purposes for all of his creation are forever set in heaven and inexorably implemented on earth, saw fit to demonstrate his power and glory by commending the rain, the snow and the hail to remind the arrogant, modern Atlantans of his divine being and attributes. He is the unstoppable God whose ".. way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet." Nah 1:3. Every snowflake bore his signature; every pellet of hail displayed his autograph; every drop of rain attested to, the father of the rain. Indeed, he is the ultimate Rainmaker. Above all, he is altogether holy and good!

This is one lesson I learned while I experienced a temporary confinement. God was declaring himself again to us all, as he has been doing since the time of his creation, to evince us of his invisible attributes which can be clearly understood through the creation itself. But, as it was with the Lord Jesus, who came into his own and was rejected by them, (in the words of "Sweet Little Jesus Boy") "we didn't know it was you." As Paul warned the church at Rome, we are without excuse for we refused to acknowledge his presence among us and professing ourselves to be wise, out of the futility of our thinking and darkness of our hearts, we denied him the honor that is due him. We stifled the plain truth. Rom 1:18 -22. Yet, the unmistakable reality was that to some of us whose hearts have been savingly enlightened by the monergistic work of God's grace alone, we understood the storm’s message to be ".. the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."" Hab 2:20. This admonition applied to a perplexed Job of the land of Uz as well as to the cynical skeptics of the city of Atlanta. The storm provided another opportunity for us to be still and to harken to him who speaks out of the storm… indeed, to him who speaks to the storm.