Making It Through the Storm
written by Rev. Dr. Scott Paczkowski
“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. ”
Jill, Hannah, and I made it through the storm. It was June of 2008. We were in Estes Park, Colo., so that I could perform our nephew’s wedding. We had a great time. We made a vacation out of it. Being with family was meaningful. We had fun listening to live musicians and exploring the eclectic little shops, and an elk herd was even passing through town. It couldn’t have been a better time!
Then we started home. In eastern Colorado, our 17-year-old daughter threw her back out and was in such pain that we went to a rural hospital for the medication necessary for her to get home. That was the least stressful part of the trip. Thankfully, after she took her medication, she passed out and didn’t wake until we got home, oblivious to the nightmare Jill and I were about to endure.
We were about halfway through Nebraska when the sky turned apocalyptic. The clouds were spiking in all directions, seemingly in dozens of layers, and the sky was an ominous green hue. The wind picked up, and we turned on the radio, hearing the voice of God, which was a guy on a Nebraska radio station. Within seconds of turning the radio dial, the voices said, “If you are at mile marker ___turn sound immediately.” I kid you not; we were at that exact mile marker. I turned south, and minutes later, the voice informed the listeners that a tornado damaged the highway.
While on a road south of the interstate, I stopped for gas in a small town. As I was pumping the last of the gas into the tank, I felt all the air get sucked out of the sky. I experienced a Nebraska tornado up close and personal in Grand Island in 1973 and remembered the same sensation. I ran into the gas station to tell the two inside to “get to an inner room and get down.” (I did not include the expletives for the good of the devotion.) I ran back to the car and proceeded out of town at high speed. Minutes later, the same divine voice on the radio announced sadly that the tornado severely damaged the town.
We zigzagged the rest of the way home to Waterloo, Iowa. The trip from Estes Park to Waterloo took 23 hours. The next morning, the news informed us that four Boy Scouts in western Iowa were killed the same night in the tornadoes we barely avoided. I do not know why those poor boys died while Jill, Hannah, and I were spared. Their deaths made it hard for me to say God saved us when others perished. My whole story is theologically unfair, but still, I cannot ignore the facts of that night. I believe God helped us live through the guidance of that radio voice, whose recommendations we followed at least four times that night. Each one seemingly saved us.
Each of us has a story of unfairness when it comes to God’s care. Theologically, I continue to struggle with why some live while others die. To retain my faith, I must accept that our world is inherently unfair. True justice will only occur in our next lifetime. I cannot begin to convey my sympathy for the families of the boys who lost their lives that night. As a person of faith, I embrace the mystery of our world’s unfairness. I live with the gulf between God’s gift of life for my family and the horrific pain of the loss of those boys. Rather than trying to explain the unexplainable, I live in trust, believing that God will someday reveal the divine plan so we can understand. It is for me to be faithful and trusting and let God be the one responsible for knowing and making wholeness out of our earthly pain.
