Storm Follow Up

If you read my article from last week, I talked about the storms in your life and the decisions that you must make when one comes. I also referenced an incoming hurricane. That hurricane hit the same day that that article was published, and it hit with ferocity.

It started around 5:00 o’clock that evening and continued to strengthen until it hit its peak around 8:30 that night. Winds howling, rain pouring, and the wrath and rage of Mother Nature just on the other side of the wall from where I sat.

I have a couple of different points to make today. The first one is about the storm and the choices. So here I sit one week after being hit by hurricanes zeta, with at least another week of clean up ahead of me. I alluded to the destruction that I expected last week. Still, I forgot to mention one thing is planning for it and then witnessing the destruction. Which are two completely different things.

After the power went out and we’re walking around the house with candles lit from my own Smith homestead inventory. I would occasionally take the spotlight and shining out the back door just to see what the storm was doing. Every time I would look at the trees, my truck, and my storage buildings.

The Crash

Around 8:15 that evening, we heard a loud noise that sounded almost like a car wreck, and I took my trusty flashlight and shined it out the back door. I looked at the trees, looked at my truck, and looked at the empty place where my storage buildings once stood. Scanning around the backyard, I found mangled up piles of metal that used to be my storage buildings now sitting where my greenhouse was set.

I expected the damage, but I was not expecting to see the damage. My wife was standing beside me as she began to cry. She turned around, put her face into my shoulder, and cried. My reply to her was God gives, and God takes away. And when he takes away, he always restores and even better than before. As I heard those words coming out of my mouth in an attempt to comfort her, I must admit that at that moment, I felt no comfort myself.

The comfort that was missing was knowing that while I wasn’t going to give up, I knew I had to rebuild, and rebuilding is expensive.

Value

There is one thing I did not cover last week that is vitally important and number two of my points today. You see, we have a choice as to what we provide to this world. And what I forgot and what I re-learned is the value of providing value to this world.

When you provide value, you provide a need for the people around you and the people you interact with. And then being valuable yourself, you surround yourself with valuable people. Ultimately we are the product of those we are surrounded by. That’s been said often by many gurus and eBook sellers. What is often missed in these sage words of wisdom is just how much you’re so responsible for attracting that quality of people to you.

I reached out onto Twitter to vent my frustrations and my anger. And what I found was a tremendous number of people who valued and cared about my family and me. I received messages from people that I have never spoken to before. Multiple people reached out and said that they have been following me for a very long time, had never spoken to or interacted with me. Still, they were concerned for myself and my family.

Provision

All of them said the exact same thing, that I was a blessing to them, that I have provided tremendously for them, and one person told me that I had even saved him, and I never knew. And the outpouring a financial help that I received from my followers humbled my heart and quivered my voice while streaming tears from my eyes.

Because although I had already made my decision, I had no clue how to begin to pay for it. Through the help of many friends and many strangers, a massive burden was lifted from me. Through many people, God worked to restore what was taken. My God is ever faithful and provision.

The lesson that I learned is that by being myself and genuinely caring about the content I create and the people I provide it to. For that, I received one of the biggest blessings I’ve ever received in my life. I have intentionally and unintentionally surrounded myself with some of the most generous people on this planet.

Philippians 4:19

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. 

Padre

Twitter @HmestedPadre
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