“Watching a Hurricane”

September 11, 2017

Sitting in my upstairs room in the dark while the wind blows so strong, I am writing this essay on paper, not a computer screen.  This pretty much summarizes the dilemma of so many of us across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina tonight.  The arrival of Hurricane Irma in time for us to remember 9-11, 2001 while sitting in the dark is a reminder to all of us who are so blessed in the United States of America that not everyone across our planet is as blessed as we are.

Though our lights and power will be out for a few hours, days, or weeks and will inconvenience us greatly, on St. Marten/St Kitts, Barbuda, the British Virgin Isles and Cuba as well as other isles left nameless, all pummeled by a monster storm in the Atlantic called Irma, others are not so blessed.  Irma destroyed islands with 160+ miles per hour winds or greater, in a phenomenon of nature we cannot control.

Every one (1) degree C rise of water temperature causes the atmosphere to hold 7% more moisture.  By reports this year the Gulf of Mexico is up 1-2 degrees Celsius.  The Atlanta is also warmer.  Hence we have a storm like Irma.  The Pope called any who ignore climate change as “stupid, stubborn men!”  This is pretty strong language for the pope.  He speaks on behalf of the poorest, weakest, most vulnerable among us, for he knows these will pay the greatest price for our stupidity.  He talks about the moral responsibility we carry, for though we know better, we ignore the science and do nothing.  If we hold the Pope’s words as either authoritative (as some) or simply instructive (as others), we still are called to listen, hear and respond.

Many good deeds, acts of human kindnesses result from natural disasters as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, both monster storms causing great devastation.  Millions of persons have been affected.  Tens of thousands will respond.  Almost all with give or bring gifts.  Our human community is recovered, albeit briefly, when we unite, regardless of race, creed, color, politics or religious beliefs, or lack thereof.  What is it directing us that makes us briefly so good?  Perhaps, it is the knowledge that next time we are those who will be flooded, lose electric power, homes, and livelihood.  We pay forward for our own self-interest.  Or is it simply that we feel compassion for our fellow men and women who are suffering so, who are distraught, who have lost everything, who need our helping hand?

Sometimes, the Lord wants us to lose power for a little while, I think, so we remember what it is like to be dependent on Him or someone else.  For a time we stop.  We recognize for a brief moment that we cannot transform nature with our technology, for nature defeats us.  Nature is more powerful than we are.  The limitations on a category 5 hurricane seemingly have no bounds.  Who can control the monster except God?  What happens when God allows natural forces in nature simply to play out?  How much of our disasters do we bring upon ourselves?

No one wants to answer or even address such questions as these.  Yet, at least Pope Francis reminds us that we are stewards of God’s good creation.  So the onus is on us to manage thus, not upon God.  The Holy Scriptures says God gives the earth to us to tend, to enjoy, and to sustain the human family.  The earth has done, so far, a remarkable job, nurturing some 7+ billion souls.  I am so very grateful for this gift!

However, I wonder about and I tremble for the next generation following after me.  I am old, my time here is passing.  But there are 7 billion more like me.  Will we do enough now to sustain all of us then?  According to our scientists, we passed 440 parts per million of C02 in the atmosphere.  This is a large amount in the age of homo-sapiens on the earth.  Some say “we have crossed over the Rubicon.”  Like Julius Caesar marching on Rome, we cannot go back.  Or can we?  Is there a way to scrub our atmosphere, by reducing C02 emissions?  Can we slow global warming to the point the permafrost and the overlying icebergs stop melting, before the release of all the methane (C04) bound up, to prevent its erupting into the air?  Can we turn back global warming?

There are some who simply refuse to accept the clear word of science on global warming.  Businessmen and politicians lining their pockets with money have reason not to believe and to ignore.  But those of us who garden, watching for the coming of spring, who look out for the honey bees, put up nesting sites for the mason bees, who build blue bird boxes and leave milkweed growing for the monarch butterfly…those of us who do these things know something has changed, something is different, even wrong with our climate!  Flowers bloom at the wrong time.  Birds arrive late and leave early on their migration.  Honey bees become scarce when they have nothing but lawn grass to feed upon.  People kill carpenter bees, one of our best pollinators, worrying about the holes they make in our wood.

We act as those who somehow believe we are the masters of creation.  We have forgotten in the era of the modern electric lights that we are the recipient of gifts from God.  The rhythm of the seasons, spring, summer, fall, winter, the Sabbath of the seventh day of rest to give us renewed strength and better health.  Even the animals teach us the rhythm of each day, how to rise early and to sleep when the sun goes down.  Yet we light up the night and call it a new day.  We can no longer see the stars of the heavens, for the earth light obscures them.  We work longer, play more and entertain ourselves until the wee hours of the morning.  But then, we forget to give thanks to the God who has made us.

And so, I sit in the dark night, contemplating limitations placed upon me by a storm.  But I do have my batteries and my little halogen light which is so bright even I make night into day!  But then so did many others before me with kerosene lamps and candles of wax, or sticks with pitch and flame.

We are an interesting lot, we human beings.  God loves us all, in spite and because of everything.   I wonder sometimes how God will find space for all of us in heaven.  Otherwise, God will need to make a new space for us, a new heaven and a new earth!  Oh my God.  I think He has already made plans to do just that!

BW, servant of God, by God’s gracious mercies, in Jesus Christ our Lord.  “Amen!”