The destruction started, just one house over…

Springtime in the Delta is a magical place.  Days become longer.  Seeds are being planted in anticipation of the coming fall harvest.  Trees and flowers awaken from their winter’s slumber.  The birds and squirrels are busy building nests for their next batch of offspring.  The school children…along with the teachers…are anxiously awaiting the end of classes to begin their summer vacation.  That cool, crisp morning air makes for a perfect time to enjoy that first cup of coffee from your front porch.  And smiles and laughter fill the air as life has returned from the winter doldrums in the Arkansas Delta.

However, Springtime in the Delta is also a very dangerous place.  In addition to the refreshing spring rains and occasional thunderstorms, it’s sometimes a haven for tornadoes…deadly ones.

Yesterday, was one of those days…

It was Friday, March 31^st, 2023.  My day began as normal.  Up at 4:50am to get ready to face my day.  After my morning routine of quiet time, exercise and breakfast, I got dressed and headed out to door.  My typical morning begins at 6:00am as I board my school bus, headed out into the county to pick up a bus load of bustling school children.  We arrive back at the first of our school campuses and begin unloading at 7:30am.  After we’re finished, I’m headed over to our Primary School where I spend the rest of the day from 8:00am to 5:00pm.

But we knew that yesterday had the strong potential of being deadly.  Springtime in the Delta brings us our share of thunderstorms, severe thunderstorms and even tornadoes.  We’re used to it.  However, the longer you live in the Delta, you soon pick up on certain indicators that let you know when a possible storm system is more advanced…more uglier than normal.  Yesterday’s incoming storm checked off all the indicator boxes.  I was on high alert…

We had been warned by the National Weather Service all week long about the potential for a severe tornado outbreak to take place yesterday.  Normally, only one or two days of advance conversation is all we hear, but his one was talked about for days.  Indicator Number One…Check.

When I woke up yesterday, the weather was one of the first things I looked at.  Already, that early in the morning, you could see rain and storms begin to develop in southern Arkansas.  The pattern they were moving was directly in line with our city.  Indicator Number Two…Check.

Throughout the morning, I kept a strong watch on the weather radar.  And all morning long, the pattern began to develop even stronger, still heading in our direction.  There were no signs of deviation.  This beast was headed our way.  Indicator Number Three…Check.

All week long, the weather forecasters continue to single out Northeast Arkansas as the hot-zone.  Our little corner of the world received a Tor-Con rating of 7/10 leading into today.  It had been that way for almost a week.  Indicator Number Four…Check.

About mid-morning, I received word that the largest school system to our north…one hour away…and another large school system…45 minutes to our east…had announced they were dismissing school at 1:00pm in preparation for the coming storm.  This was a huge indicator.  Number Five…Check.

I made my way outside of our building on a number of occasions yesterday morning, watching…waiting.  Something was definitely coming…

At 11:18am, we received the alert.  “Due to the threat of severe weather and buses driving back during storms Wynne Public Schools will release students at 1:30pm – Board Buses.”  Indicator Number Six…Check.

It was game on now.  I knew it wasn’t a matter if ‘if’ … it was a matter of ‘when’ and ‘where was it going.’

Parents whose children were car riders were allowed in the pick-up line at 1:07…I was the one to open the gate.

Inside the classrooms, teachers were safely and securely getting their children ready to leave, without giving way to panic.  Our teachers and staff are rock stars!  All our children knew was they were going home early for the weekend! 

I love our kids!

As car riders were rapidly moving though the pick-up lines, we began boarding buses.  We have four rounds of buses that come though each school campus, and I can honestly say that I have never seen the speed and accuracy of the departure of our children as I did that day!  We expedited children off our campuses at a record pace. 

As soon as children were officially leaving their classrooms, teachers and staff began to file out.  By this time, the department that I work for had received word that we too, would be able to leave at 2:15pm.  Normally, I would have been on campus till 5:00pm.

I made my way up and down each hall, making sure that our building was clear.  At 2:15pm as I was gathering up my stuff out of our office, only our administration team and a couple of teachers remained…hurrying to get off the campus.  There was an eerie quiet throughout our building as I headed toward the door…

As I walked to my vehicle, the sky told me everything I needed to know…something wicked this way comes.

I live less than 10 minutes from my school campus that I work on.  Little did I know that as I was driving home that afternoon, it would be the last time that I would see our community and my neighborhood intact.  Homes that had been built for years where generations of children had grown up would soon be nothing more than a memory…trees that had stood the test of time would soon be as broken splinters…a school that housed the education, the laughter and the memories of countless students would be reduced to twisted metal and mere ruble.  My 10-minute drive to work will never be the same…

I arrived home less than 10 minutes later to find Mrs. Denise and the Weather Channel filling me in on the latest updates.  At this point, there were currently 5 different tornado warnings throughout our state, not to mention the wide-spread tornado watch that encompassed the entire state.  This was an ugly and vicious weather system, one that I hadn’t seen the likes of in a very long time.  All of the indicators were coming together and proving true!

It was only a matter of time until this beast arrived…the waiting was excruciating…

Standing outside, my eyes were rapidly scanning the skies, praying and hoping that this thing would disappear long before it reached us.  The temperature was extremely warm, and the air was thick.  As each moment passed, I noticed our neighborhood had grown eerily quiet.  The birds and squirrels had vanished.  Only an occasional vehicle dotted the road.  The hair on the back of my neck was standing straight up. 

The 4:00pm hour was approaching…I was standing in the middle of the road in front of our house.  Our road runs east and west which gave me a clear view of the western sky.  By this time, my three neighbors had joined me in the street…and our families were all gathered on our respective front porches waiting for instructions.  We had received word that this particular weather system had already came through Little Rock with a vengeance, leaving destruction in it’s path.  Now, it was barreling its way toward the Delta, and it was picking up strength.  The countdown had begun…

Shortly after 4:00pm, the tornado sirens began going off in our city…rotation had been spotted west of the city, aiming northeast.  It’s amazing how loud those sirens are when you’re standing in the middle of a normally busy street in a very busy town…when now all was silent.  All indications pointed that this storm was going to go northeast of our city, out into the farmlands.  As it passed through, all the other trained spotters that were on the air waves confirmed that exact thing.  Thankfully, that one never reached the ground. 

There was a sigh of relief from the other guys with me in the road.  We had dodged the bullet this time around.  There was now chatter coming from our porches, our families were calming down.  But something didn’t feel right me.  Still haven’t been able to put my finger on what that was, but I just knew something else was coming.  Unfortunately, I was right…

We each headed back to our yards, still carrying on our conversations.  As I was just about to walk up my front porch steps, I stopped and looked straight up.  I grabbed my phone and started filming.  Mrs. Denise hollered at me, ‘what is it?’  Still filming, I replied, ‘we’re not done…we’ve got a trailer!’  I stopped filming, and immediately called out to my neighbor guys.  “Ya’ll, we’ve got a trailer coming…get your families in the house now!”  I told Mrs. Denise to grab her purse and my billfold and get in our safe spot…the other men were giving similar instructions to their families as well.  As all of this was happening, the weather services were beginning to make the announcement that there was indeed a trailer, bigger…stronger than the first one, and it was already on the ground west of town, headed due East.  The sirens began going off for the second time of the day, we were not done by a long shot.  I made my way back to the middle of my road, and aimed my camera west.  The other three had rejoined me.  The air became deadly still…and silent.  The air became way thicker than before…it was if you could slice it with a knife.  There was no sounds anywhere other than the rumbles of the oncoming storm. 

We watched the rain as it made its way up our street.  Come to find out, this beast was rain-wrapped, and we couldn’t get a good frontal view of it until it was almost too late.  When the first drops of rain reached us, we headed back to our houses…we came real close to staying in the street a bit too long.  You could see this thing moving toward us…and I was still on my front porch filming.  All of sudden, the rain stopped…the wind came to a dead standstill…and a haunting howl came screaming up our street. 

I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.  And I pray I never do again…

Many people describe the sound of a tornado as that of a train.  We live right beside the train tracks.  I can 100% assure you, this was not the sound of any train I’ve ever heard.  The best description I can use is that it sounded like a hollow jet engine that was revving up just before takeoff.  It was a sound I’ll never forget… 

As I continued to watch from my front porch, my neighbors had already gone inside.  They were smarter than me.  But I couldn’t leave…I was mesmerized…

The sky was darkening and I could begin to see the debris being tossed about in the air as it made its way up the street.  Trees were breaking…and falling…electrical poles were snapping…and the debris began hitting me in the face.

It was now three houses down and moving fast…time for Jim to go…

As I bolted through our front door, the debris was hitting the side of our house like a barrage of bullets from an assault rifle…I truly thought the windows were going to shatter.  The wind was vicious…countless ‘thumps’ hit our house and was heard outside…that insane howl had grown louder…and our house seemed to be moving.  I had no idea what was going to happen next.  All I know is that I had been constantly praying throughout the day, and was still praying hard that God would put His hand of protection around our house, our vehicle and all of our property, that He would keep all of our trees from falling on our house, and that He would protect Mrs. Denise and me through this storm. 

It was all in His hands…

*********************

But that’s the way it should be, right?  God wants us to live our lives in such a way that we put everything in His hands…no exceptions.  Our lives should be defined as, uncompromising…or unbending…or adamant.  Uncompromising, to anything or anyone other than Him, in all aspects of our life.  Does that describe you?  How can we describe what an ‘uncompromising life’ looks like?  John MacArthur defines it as, “…absolute obedience to God’s Word and its principles, live out in love.”  Period.  The thing is, living your life in a total uncompromising way in everything you do is sometimes easier said than done.  Why?  Because we want to determine the solutions to our own problems…figure stuff out for ourselves instead of trusting God.  We’re stubborn like that.  And we’re selfish like that, too.  I know I’m sure stubborn and selfish like that…a lot!  But when life is constantly hitting you in the face with a relentless barrage of punches and body punches that with each one seems to beat the literal life out of you, it’s hard to keep going!  I know…I get it!  We have to remember who we’re fighting.  We have to know who our real enemy is.  When we know that, the game changes.  Ephesians 6:12 explains everything…

The Bible tells us of a group of young men that quickly found themselves in a tremendous storm. 

In the Book of Daniel, we’re introduced to Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael.  You probably know those last three as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego.  Their lives help establish and solidify the standard of what an uncompromising life should look like!

These four young boys, along with others…somewhere around 13-15 years old…were kidnapped when Jerusalem was captured by Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.  These young boys are described in Daniel 1:4 as, “…young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.”

The king, had a plan…to totally brainwash these young men and remove from them their Jewish life, teaching and upbringing in order that they might serve him.  Daniel 1:5:  “And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king.”   

It was a complete brainwashing scheme that was designed to take three years in order to eradicate everything these young boys knew and believed about Jewish life and beliefs.  King Nebuchadnezzar just knew he had it all figured out…or so he thought.

Daniel 1:8 begins to unveil the uncompromising standards of these four young men:  “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank…”    

These young boys refused to be brainwashed.  Verses 9-17 tells of the stand they took and how they accomplished it.  These young boys were uncompromising…and left everything in God’s hands. 

Verses 18-20 tell us the outcome after the three years of training and brainwashing is complete!  Strong…faithful…determined…and dedicated…and God was with them every step of the way.  We have to remember these young boys are now approximately 17-18 years old, yet their spiritual maturity was advanced way beyond their years.  However, the greatest storm they were ever to face was quickly approaching, and gaining strength…

Daniel Chapter 3 describes the oncoming storm.  It was a storm so massive, that it was meant to destroy them…one way or the other:  abandon the faith and the God you’ve served all of your life or, stand on your faith and be executed by being burned alive.        

They chose to stand on their faith and refused to abandon their God.  It was a decision that defined their God…and it was a decision that defined their lives.  They knew unequivocally their God had the power and the authority to deliver them from the hand and the rule of the Babylonian king.  It was His choice.  Daniel 3:16b-18 records their response to the king:  “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.  If that is the case, (that we are to be executed) our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king.  But if not, let it be known to you, O king that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

It was all in God’s hands…

Daniel 3:19-30 describes the outcome.  The God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego had indeed delivered them from the storm.

True faith is complete and unadulterated trust in the One True God.  It’s getting out of the way and letting God be God…confident that the outcome of any and every situation is by His design and perfect in His will in every sense of the word.

It’s uncompromising.  It’s being uncommon.  It’s putting everything in God’s Hands…  

To be continued…