Hurricanes, Floods, Tornadoes, Fires... What a year!

I was reading this passage in Joel (1:4-5). "What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten;What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. Awake, you drunkards, and weep"

I couldn't help but wonder about the weather here in the U.S. this year. We have had one disaster after another. We had so much snow over the winter. Here in the North I dug out 17 inches in one storm alone. But in the Rockies, storm after storm pelted the mountains. Then the snow never really melted... and the rains came... and with it flooding.

Tornadoes are not unusual for the Midwest but storm after storm hit populated areas. That's unusual and very sad. Then came the heat. Days, months in some places baking in triple digit heat. Many ranchers lost their shirts as well as their cattle. Then came hurricane season, more wind, more rain, more lives disrupted. Then fires in Texas and elsewhere, where the heat never let up. What is going on? I really don't know but after a year like this one Joel is beginning to have new meaning to me.

Twenty years ago our lives looked like this year's weather. We had one thing after another go wrong until we ended the year homeless and drifting. We asked the question, "If God was trying to change our direction, what would He have to do to get our attention?" Our conclusion was that He would have to get pretty drastic. With new eyes then we looked at our situation and asked God what His plan was for our lives right then. He totally changed our direction. I'm thinking we as a country... maybe globally could use a direction change. Why do we do what we do? What is the point of our lives? If God were trying to get our attention what would He have to do to get it? This passage in Joel concludes with this plea, "WAKE UP!"

I'm not thinking of God bringing on disasters to punish us... but I believe He won't step in to protect where He is not welcome. I believe God has been our protector much more than we know.