Here are my {humble and extremely astute, hahahaha!} observations on what happens when a lot of rain comes quickly…

Nothing profound or scientific here.  Just my thoughts running downstream…

You may be praying for it (in arid, semi-desert areas, we often do), but it shows up in the night while you are totally unprepared, sleeping, minding your own business.

• Rocky and Jovan had no warning, when at 3 am, their electricity was out and within 20 minutes they watched water rise from the second step to just a couple of feet from their main level, reaching nearly 6 feet high in their basement.  They couldn’t drive out of their cul-de-sac because the street was already rushing and deep, but had to pack quickly for three baby girls.  It can be sudden.  It was in this case.

It rips your belongings from their places and they just float away.

• The next day, Rocky went to his house and everything downstairs was just floating around on its side: furnace, hot water heater, washer, dryer, computers, musical recording equipment and sound systems.  All of Rocky’s guitars and instruments (the ones he learned to worship on), were soaked and floating or submersed.   Material things float away in a flood, in an abundance of rain.

It fills the creeks, the rivers, bursts through dams, flows down it’s normal contained path in ever-rising power then through streets and places that cannot contain it.

• It gets dangerous.  It shows up where we were glad to have it and where we weren’t.  But it is the nature of abundance.  It’s everywhere.  It rains on the just and on the unjust, in good ways and in ways that we were not expecting and don’t know how to handle.

Everybody wants to claim they got more of it than some one else.

• I don’t want to say too much about this for fear I’ll end up totally snarky.  So let me just say, if you lost anything at all, if you are now faced with mold growing where the basement flooded and your childhood keepsakes are gone – it is a loss.  It is horrible.  And I hope you have some one in your life who will acknowledge that and let you say why the loss affected you and how sad you feel.  I really do.   But there were people whose houses stayed completely dry who acted like they had been banished to a completely undeveloped third world country  because a road half a mile away couldn’t be transversed for 24-48 hours.  Keep perspective and get into gratefulness.  Maybe the next big tragedy will be all about you – won’t that be nice?  There!  See?  I got into snarkiness.  I cannot be trusted.

Some people will lose a lot and then be recompensed with piles of pious platitudes.

• Mourn with those who mourn.  Maybe what they lost didn’t mean anything to you, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t mean anything to them.  They are tired.  They have a lot of work ahead.  When they say, “Oh-I just found out I lost {some, silly, ridiculous, sentimental, inconsequential thing} in the flood,”  we should commiserate, we should sympathize, and maybe if we know what that is like, we should empathize.  For how long?  Until they are done.  My conjecture is that if we’d stop and mourn with those who are mourning, their mourning would turn into dancing a whole lot sooner.  Sometimes what is lost isn’t recognized right away anyway, in the shocking aftermath of a new normal, of material loss.   Encourage, literally give them some of your courage.  Listen, let them tell you why that {silly, ridiculous, sentimental, inconsequential thing} meant something.  But refrain, pleeeeeease, from pious-sounding-cliches and especially from a “knowing look” that God sent this hard thing to work something in their lives that you totally knew they needed.  Because you will not want that coming back on you!

The rushing water brings a cleansing, but cleansing strips away things we didn’t count on, too.

• It is a heavenly do-over.  Now what will we do with it?  It’s a chance to right wrongs, fresh slate, build better, travel lighter, haul away the concentrated, contaminated mud for good.
• But in the cleansing – I have one friend who lost everything including her home in Lyons.  There is nothing for her to even go back to, her home and those who lived near – all gone.  The land will be cleared and maybe eventually that will seem fine, safer for the future, but right now – it represents many families, people who have nowhere to call “home.”
• So?  A fresh slate can be good, it is also very empty – much work to do!

If the water gets stuck in one spot, it will become stagnant.

• There is so much contamination throughout our state now, as the rain has ceased and the rushing has subsided and is sitting still.  I have read about the revivals of old, Azusa, the Welsh Revival.  Powerful moves of God flowing through and changing the landscape, were eventually dammed up, “named”, coined phrases were assigned to them for categorizing the flow of the Holy Spirit.  The rains can be administrated and basically contained…to death.  Choose life from this wet mess!

The bug population will suddenly be crazy after it happens.

• Because even where the rains have made the grass and trees greener than ever in our state at this time of year, when the good stuff is increased, the annoying stuff {fatigue sets in, bickering, backbiting, distrust, unrest, eye-rolling, offense} increases around it, too.  Be aware.  Be wary.  Be on guard.  They seek to destroy the green-life we are enjoying.

See?  Nothing profound or scientific.  Just a bunch of thoughts rattling around, things I see.

The Bible says where the river flows everything will live.  This will eventually probably be one of the most beautiful autumns Colorado has ever seen {both in the natural and because it is bringing people together to do good for one another}.  It will take time to rebuild, to get “back to normal,” to regain what was lost.  But even now, are we not seeing clearly the great grace and love of God, His heart poured out in love towards us, His great grace at work through His people.  He is good.  We know this now.  But – in the looking back someday, how amazed we will really be, I am sure of it!

~~~~~~~~~~

Zumba, baby!

Meanwhile, the amazing Tammy Brown (the outrageously gorgeous woman married to the ineffable Lewis “Proxy” Brown, yes THAT Tammy) is doing a fitness-fundraiser {how fun is that?} to help Rocky and Jovan as they work to recover their losses!  It’s a ZUMBA-thing!  You should ALL come!  Seriously!  THIS kind of abundance – it’s a love-rain!

Thanks to so many who are helping so many others and especially those who are loving on my familia.