Journal Entry 8: Outside We Went

Jesus, if you’re not in it; I don’t want it.

Journal Entry 8: Outside We Went

The morning after hurricane Helene was surprising to me. Journal Entry 7: Thank You, But I'll Be Dying with My Pants On., went over the night Helene hit, and there was a lot going on that night. Still, when I woke up the next morning I didn’t expect to see the destruction. Even more surprising was the randomness of the destruction.

Waking up to no power there were two things I knew needed to happen.

1.    I needed coffee.

2.    Family needed ice.

I went on an ice run. This would become a morning routine for several days.

Day 1, my entire city was shut down. Driving in one direction found me on a road with felled trees, downed power lines, and roadblocks. I turned around to drive out of our small city towards our neighboring city, Savannah. Halfway there, kind of the middle ground between the two cities I found one store open.

This one store, Parker’s, a jewel of a find, would be my go-to-spot. Inside I met several who’d just left Savannah in search of a place still open. Turns out Savannah was even worse off than we were. Being a coastal city with a river, Savannah took heavy wind damage and flooding.

Returning home I found everyone was awake. Took me over an hour to find ice at that one Parker’s store that was open. No power, the house heating up with the rising sun, we decided to go outside and begin cleaning up. I’d mentioned the randomness of the destruction earlier. Our home, thank you Jesus, was ok. We had the entire yard, front and back, cleaned up in under 2 hours. For some around us it was the same, some mess. For others around us it was worse. One neighbor had a tree knocking on her front door. A Neighbor a few houses down had a massive pine tree smash through his house-size shop. It missed their actual house, and the family was ok, thankfully.

After Helene, Day1, was productive on some aspects. We found a store where we could get ice and my much needed(at least greatly desired) coffee, cleaned up the yard, checked in with neighbors, and survived on sandwiches. What we didn’t know was that our lights weren’t going to come on for four more days. We went to sleep that night with the windows open, sweating from the heat, and annoyed. The cool part is, God likes to teach us through the rough times. He did it with us, and our loss of power turned into a sweaty, somewhat expensive, blessing.

Day 2 started with an ice and coffee run. Then we had breakfast, and outside we went. Our routine was established with a few add-ins. Rainy, and I pulled out our grill and brought back some forgotten joys. In short, we got our butts out of the house and lived a little. Meals by fire, walks and talks with neighbors that we rarely had. Our kids had no choice but to play and enjoy God’s shade and beloved breeze. We were acting like a family and we were acting like a small town community. Something I’m willing to bet most of us our missing.

Maybe my favorite part was when we all gathered around a cast-iron skillet on the driveway. The kids and I built a small campfire inside the skillet (cool looking: should have taken a picture of it: didn’t, sorry.) With family we all sat around roasting marshmallows, making smores, and just talking. Laughs were shared almost as much as the marshmallows. It was . . . peaceful, calming, joyful. The night ended, for me, several hours later still around that skillet-fire, amazed at how bright the night was.

People who’ve ever been out in the wilderness rarely get to see the majestic side of a stary night. I hadn’t seen it sense my kid years. I’d forgotten how bright the night can be under the stars. With no city lights for miles around, yall, I could see all the way down my road, a good two football fields in distance. I could see details under starlight that city lights blind us from. It was beautiful.

God took my family’s crazy, busy, lives and shut them down for 4.5 days. He gave us a much need rest and reminded us of what we’d lost. Now, we go outside. We lost that simple joy. Now, this weekend, we’re celebrating birthdays (2 of them) outside with hot dogs and sausages on the grill. For many, hurricane Helene killed, stole, and destroyed. For those people I know a lot harder road is ahead. I don’t make light of such hardship. I also will never move to Florida. At the time of this writing hurricane Milton just slammed through Florida.

For my family we got a wake-up call, and I’m glad Jesus phoned in early. I thank Jesus our giant oak that has been a shade upon our home and front yard still stands. I thank Jesus tornados missed us. I thank Jesus I had enough money in the bank account to provide for our family during the power loss. I thank Jesus for a grill and the knowledge to use it. I thank Jesus for many things, especially the safety of my family and friends. Jesus isn’t a promise of easy times or even safety, but he will always be there with us if we let him.