Here's Pastor Dave McDowell's weekly devotional that he sends out to members of his church. Dave is my brother and serves as the Music Minister at Stewartstown UMC in PA.
So much for global warming......
When the 28 inch storm came over the weekend,
most of us thought it couldn't get any worse.
Be careful what you think.....
The additional 20 inches of snow that came 4 days later disproved that.
That would be the 20 inches accompanied by blizzard like winds for several days.
I love snow.
There is nothing better than a big snowstorm when you are a skier.
That is, unless you have put your skis away for the year
because you are building a house.
There is something soothing
about being nestled in during a storm.
A feeling of safety, of comfort, of being cared for.
Time to slow down, enjoy some hot chocolate,
put together a puzzle .
When I was growing up on the farm,
our family called it "hunkering down."
I could tell with this storm that it was
going to be quite a bit of hunkering down.
The only problem was that this year
hunkering down meant
more time to work inside on my house remodeling project.
And the only problem with that was
that after the storm was done,
there was all the work to be done outside.
You know what I mean,
those 6 foot drifts across the driveway
that need to be shoveled....
so that you could get to the state road...
that was closed!
walkways to be tackled with the snow blower......
ice that need to be treated or scraped...
pets that needed to be rescued....
(see the update below)
After a 8 hour shoveling workout
that rivaled anything I have ever done at the gym,
I thought I was in good shape.....
that was until I looked up,
and saw my 30 by 36 foot low pitch roof
bearing the weight of 2 feet of snow.
Snow that was predicted to lie there for days, if not weeks.
With all apologies to Tevye,
I didn't need a fiddler on the roof.
I needed a snow blower on the roof.
Oh, if I were a rich man.......
No such luck.
3 more hours of shoveling.
That would be shoveling snow off the roof
onto the very walkways that I had just finished clearing.
Oh, if I were a smart man......
Hunkering down takes a lot of patience,
it also takes some brains.
and some muscle.
It also takes faith...
faith that better days lie ahead,
faith that God is with us through the storm,
faith that we will be given all that we need to move on.
The next time
I need to remember,
that before I hunker down,
I need to look up....
in more ways than one.
I look up to the mountains;
does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
Psalm 121:1
So much for global warming......
When the 28 inch storm came over the weekend,
most of us thought it couldn't get any worse.
Be careful what you think.....
The additional 20 inches of snow that came 4 days later disproved that.
That would be the 20 inches accompanied by blizzard like winds for several days.
I love snow.
There is nothing better than a big snowstorm when you are a skier.
That is, unless you have put your skis away for the year
because you are building a house.
There is something soothing
about being nestled in during a storm.
A feeling of safety, of comfort, of being cared for.
Time to slow down, enjoy some hot chocolate,
put together a puzzle .
When I was growing up on the farm,
our family called it "hunkering down."
I could tell with this storm that it was
going to be quite a bit of hunkering down.
The only problem was that this year
hunkering down meant
more time to work inside on my house remodeling project.
And the only problem with that was
that after the storm was done,
there was all the work to be done outside.
You know what I mean,
those 6 foot drifts across the driveway
that need to be shoveled....
so that you could get to the state road...
that was closed!
walkways to be tackled with the snow blower......
ice that need to be treated or scraped...
pets that needed to be rescued....
(see the update below)
After a 8 hour shoveling workout
that rivaled anything I have ever done at the gym,
I thought I was in good shape.....
that was until I looked up,
and saw my 30 by 36 foot low pitch roof
bearing the weight of 2 feet of snow.
Snow that was predicted to lie there for days, if not weeks.
With all apologies to Tevye,
I didn't need a fiddler on the roof.
I needed a snow blower on the roof.
Oh, if I were a rich man.......
No such luck.
3 more hours of shoveling.
That would be shoveling snow off the roof
onto the very walkways that I had just finished clearing.
Oh, if I were a smart man......
Hunkering down takes a lot of patience,
it also takes some brains.
and some muscle.
It also takes faith...
faith that better days lie ahead,
faith that God is with us through the storm,
faith that we will be given all that we need to move on.
The next time
I need to remember,
that before I hunker down,
I need to look up....
in more ways than one.
I look up to the mountains;
does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
Psalm 121:1
.
No comments:
Post a Comment