The Eye of the Storm

This week, the news in the Southeast has been dominated by hurricanes—the preparation, the storms themselves, and the sad aftermath. Lives were lost, property—a lot of property—was damaged, but in the middle of it all, we believers know that God was/is there in the eye of the storm.

I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and my family and I are familiar with hurricanes. We moved to the coast in 1965, shortly after Hurricane Betsy wreaked havoc on southern Florida as well as Mississippi and Louisiana. Betsy was the first Atlantic hurricane to cause more than $1 billion in damage.

Hurricane Camille was the big weather event of my childhood. In August of 1969, Camille slammed into the Mississippi Gulf Coast as a category 5 storm, flattening just about everything in her path (back in the olden days, hurricanes were always females). My family did not evacuate—I’m pretty sure that my parents were afraid that they had made the wrong decision by choosing to ride out the storm, but for me and my brother, sleeping under the kitchen table was akin to a vacation. An added bonus was that the beginning of the school year was delayed for about a week. Ah, the innocence of youth.

In high school, my best friend and I worked in a hurricane shelter at our school. Our job was to assign evacuees to rooms and keep lists of who was in the shelter. There was no real danger (or my parents wouldn’t have let me leave the house), but we felt pretty important, nevertheless.

By the time Hurricane Katrina arrived, my family had long since moved away from the coast, but our hometown was pretty well flattened.

In the past couple of weeks, both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton roared through Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, leaving unbelievable devastation, particularly in western North Carolina.  My husband and I have family and friends in all three states who were in the paths of the storms. Thankfully, they were spared any significant damage.

If you’re still reading, thank you for sticking with me through my ramble through the weather events of my life. And that brings me to my point: how do we keep the faith through the “storms” that we face? Sickness, depression, divorce, financial woes, imprisonment, death, abuse, and violence. The list of storms is endless. But here’s what they have in common: God is there. Always. Here are a few verses to consider:

“The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.”
Nahum 1:7

“He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.”
Psalm 107:29

“You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.”
Psalm 89: 9

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7

Hurricanes are made up of three parts—the rain bands that spiral away from the center, the eye wall where the strongest winds are found, and the eye. The eye of a storm is circular, with relatively calm winds and low pressure. We may not always remember it, but God will be at the center of every storm that we face. The Almighty is always—always—at the eye of the storm