Last night I was glued to my iPhone listening to police, fire and EMS frequencies on a scanner app and watching radar images. All this while we huddled in our laundry room which serves as our emergency storm site. The howling wind, rain and hail battered our home while thunder shook the earth. After things settled down, I fell asleep at 1am.
I awoke at 4:45am and all was well in our home. Kat and the kids were sleeping soundly. It was peaceful and quiet.
30 Miles away, families just like mine were suffering loss of varying degrees. I went to a men’s Bible study at 6:15am and arrived to a half-empty room. The teaching pastor mentioned that some of our people had been effected but there were no details except to say that whole neighborhoods had been leveled by 10 tornadoes last night.
I gave a ride to a friend to his home across town and drove past the Fort Worth hospitals where EMS were delivering the worst trauma cases from last night’s storm. I remembered my trip to Joplin MO in 2011 where the hospital took a direct hit.
Consider the alternative:
I came home after a breakfast meeting to my wife and children playing and laughing. Then, I considered the alternative…. If we lived just a short distance from here, my reality would be different right now.
Press on:
If you’ve been alive long enough to read this email, you know that life is challenging and in a constant state of change. I’ve found the last month of life extremely challenging. At every turn, I was met with some form of resistance or trial.
Comfortable goes nowhere:
On several occasions, people stepped into my world and told me to press on. An encouragement at the right time can push us beyond my comfort zone into a place of resistance and pain, or simply remind us to hold on. Either way, you can’t stay where you are forever.
Several of you commented, sent emails or called to talk about the blind triathlete in my post, ‘Is there anything left to say?‘ I had dozens of conversations about those two athletes. The story never gets old and the lesson is transcendent. Press On….
Where in life have you had to press on?