Weather
28/01/13 05:01
I once had a teacher who had little time for trivia. He was interested in substantive conversation and didn’t want to waste his time with what he considered to be insignificant topics. He would begin class by diving right into the subject at hand and sometimes would chide us for talking about sports or the weather or other topics. I have deep respect for this teacher. He was very good at his craft. He was able to get me to work very hard and learn very quickly. I use lessons learned under his tutelage every day.
But he was wrong about the weather.
The weather is not an inconsequential topic. Lives are lost to severe weather. The turn of the weather can affect the pattern of ministry. And talking about the weather is a way to make a connection with people. We are all affected by the weather.
Our forecast is for a bit of snow today and tomorrow with gradual clearing throughout the week. By Thursday or Friday we should have generally nice weather. On Friday the highs will be above freezing. It doesn’t sound like much, but we need to get a load of firewood up to the Western end of the Cheyenne River Reservation and it is no fun hauling the big trailer on slippery roads. And I have a busy schedule with a lot of other activities, so I need to plan in order to take a day to haul firewood. Meanwhile, our partners are nearly out of wood. People depend on the wood to keep their houses warm and their propane bills low. How much wood they need is dependent on the weather.
One more example: Yesterday at our annual meeting our congregation voted a budget with a modest surplus. The surplus is on paper and it is likely that we will end the year with that surplus. However, it is entirely dependent upon the severity of winter weather. Colder temperatures mean more heating days and more cost for utilities. And snowstorms mean plowing for our parking lot, which is an expensive proposition.
We are affected by the weather and we ignore it at our own peril.
The biggest weather news in my circles comes from Australia these days. In Queensland, torrential rains are causing unprecedented flooding. In the town of Bundaberg, hundreds of people have been stranded by quickly rising floodwaters and helicopters are working around the clock, making dramatic rescues from rooftops and stranded vehicles. In some areas the floodwaters are moving so quickly that there are fears that homes and other structures will be washed off of their foundations. Police Superintendent Rowan Bond said, “We’ve never seen floodwaters like this before.” 14 helicopters are at work in his community. In other areas, more than 350 homes are flooded in Ipswich. More than 200,000 people are without power in Queensland. The town of Gympie has been cut off and dozens of businesses are underwater. The waters are creeping up in Brisbane, where a three year old is in critical condition after a tree fell upon him. In many places the floods are accompanied by tornadoes.
The weather is worthy of our attention.
Meanwhile, in Victoria, there are still dangerous fires burning out of control. Too much water in on part of the country, too little in another. Today the Prime Minister is expected to meet with families who have lost their homes to wildfire while the opposition leader will meet with flood victims.
I am confident that my teacher would not find conversations about the weather in Australia to be inconsequential or trivial. There isn’t a minister in the nation whose work isn’t affected in some way by the wild weather patterns of the past few years.
The mighty sweep of storms and our inability to be fully prepared for their effects are a reminder that there are plenty of forces in the universe that are more powerful than we. The Bible is filled with references to how storms are evidence of God’s power. “The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” (Nahum 1:3)
The cycles of drought and flood are seen as signs of God’s power. There are plenty of places in the Bible where severe weather is seen as a sign of God’s judgment. A meteorologist uses different language to describe the weather, but there is a sense of great power in the weather. And we are fascinated by this power. We don’t have cable television at our house, but from time to time I am in a public place where they are showing The Weather Channel. From my limited viewing, it seems to me that that particular channel delights in showing dramatic scenes of wild weather. I think that if one were to watch that channel very much one might get the feeling that severe and devastating storms are the norm in the world of weather.
We notice the storms in part because they are not the norm – they are the exception. Still, when a super storm bears down on your house, you cannot ignore the weather. Perhaps the television shows inspire at least some people to be better prepared.
In a few hours we will be gathering for the funeral of an old friend. The crowd will be small because his circle of friends in this community was small. The weather won’t be a factor in the size of the congregation gathered to mourn together. But the occasion does bring to mind a saying that we often heard when we were pastors in small town North Dakota: “Whether you’re a saint or whether you’re a sinner, the size of your funeral depends on the weather.”
The bottom line is that a lot of things depend on the weather. And we do well to try to understand the forces of this world as we journey through it. May you find strength as you face the storms of life.
But he was wrong about the weather.
The weather is not an inconsequential topic. Lives are lost to severe weather. The turn of the weather can affect the pattern of ministry. And talking about the weather is a way to make a connection with people. We are all affected by the weather.
Our forecast is for a bit of snow today and tomorrow with gradual clearing throughout the week. By Thursday or Friday we should have generally nice weather. On Friday the highs will be above freezing. It doesn’t sound like much, but we need to get a load of firewood up to the Western end of the Cheyenne River Reservation and it is no fun hauling the big trailer on slippery roads. And I have a busy schedule with a lot of other activities, so I need to plan in order to take a day to haul firewood. Meanwhile, our partners are nearly out of wood. People depend on the wood to keep their houses warm and their propane bills low. How much wood they need is dependent on the weather.
One more example: Yesterday at our annual meeting our congregation voted a budget with a modest surplus. The surplus is on paper and it is likely that we will end the year with that surplus. However, it is entirely dependent upon the severity of winter weather. Colder temperatures mean more heating days and more cost for utilities. And snowstorms mean plowing for our parking lot, which is an expensive proposition.
We are affected by the weather and we ignore it at our own peril.
The weather is worthy of our attention.
I am confident that my teacher would not find conversations about the weather in Australia to be inconsequential or trivial. There isn’t a minister in the nation whose work isn’t affected in some way by the wild weather patterns of the past few years.
The mighty sweep of storms and our inability to be fully prepared for their effects are a reminder that there are plenty of forces in the universe that are more powerful than we. The Bible is filled with references to how storms are evidence of God’s power. “The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” (Nahum 1:3)
The cycles of drought and flood are seen as signs of God’s power. There are plenty of places in the Bible where severe weather is seen as a sign of God’s judgment. A meteorologist uses different language to describe the weather, but there is a sense of great power in the weather. And we are fascinated by this power. We don’t have cable television at our house, but from time to time I am in a public place where they are showing The Weather Channel. From my limited viewing, it seems to me that that particular channel delights in showing dramatic scenes of wild weather. I think that if one were to watch that channel very much one might get the feeling that severe and devastating storms are the norm in the world of weather.
We notice the storms in part because they are not the norm – they are the exception. Still, when a super storm bears down on your house, you cannot ignore the weather. Perhaps the television shows inspire at least some people to be better prepared.
In a few hours we will be gathering for the funeral of an old friend. The crowd will be small because his circle of friends in this community was small. The weather won’t be a factor in the size of the congregation gathered to mourn together. But the occasion does bring to mind a saying that we often heard when we were pastors in small town North Dakota: “Whether you’re a saint or whether you’re a sinner, the size of your funeral depends on the weather.”
The bottom line is that a lot of things depend on the weather. And we do well to try to understand the forces of this world as we journey through it. May you find strength as you face the storms of life.