365 Days

This time last year, I was enjoying the 80 degrees of an unusually warm day in Tennessee. No idea that within five hours, I'd be rushing into the bathroom before a tornado threw a tree through the window of my friend's apartment, injured other Union students, damaged most of the buildings on campus and destroyed over 2/3 of student housing.

I remember the sound of the buildings being torn apart around and above me and the glass shattering. I remember being so scared that one of my friends or roommates had been killed. I remember feeling so helpless, and I remember the relief I felt when I finally got ahold of Russ and he said that Bonnie and I could spend the next few nights with them.

I remember the stomach ache and head ache I had for three days following the tornado. I remember not being able to eat or sleep well for days. I remember when I finally allowed myself to cry. I was at China Pan with the MKs. They were talking about the people in the hospital and how injured they were. While the MKs went to Walmart, I got into the truck that Russ and Hether had let Bonnie and I drive and broke down crying, and then drove around Jackson praying out loud and telling God how hard it all was.

I remember how wonderful and faithful God has been throughout this past year. For a few months before the tornado, I had been leaning on Psalm 46: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling." I remember waking up after a few hours of sleep the morning after the tornado. I remember opening a Bible and reading those verses in a whole new light and understanding in a whole new way what it meant that God was holy, all-powerful, and good. I remember how God provided for me in amazing ways, working things out so that I could live with Russ, Hether, Natalie, and Isaac, helping me find a car in a single week, giving me friends who gave me clothes, books, gift cards, and other gifts to help me make it through the semester. I remember how shocked I was to hear that the firemen expected to find 70 people dead when they arrived at Union, and yet no one died. And I still see how God has used the tornado to shape who I am. Life is so precarious, and God is so awesome and good. I could die at any moment, and so could the people around me. I want to use whatever life God has given me to glorify him and help others do the same. I want to show his love to a hurting world, and I want to spread his fame through the nations.