Job 38:1
Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm.

As I type this evotion, Katrina is paying an uninvited visit to many people along the Gulf Coast. She has grown larger than anticipated and is wreaking havoc on the shores in and around New Orleans. She is the reason many of us now know where Biloxi, Mississippi is and why talk shows around the nation are once again mocking those crazy people who stand in storms and broadcast for us how quickly the conditions are deteriorating. All in all, it's a bad day for the home of the Saints, the Hornets, the Green Wave and the VooDoo. But it could be worse.

Of all the things storms are - violent, unexpected, damaging - there's one thing that they're not. Storms are not silent. They speak volumes about the smallness of man and the futility oftrying to stand against it's power. Wendy asked me if I would ever consider riding out a hurricane like those people on the Gulf Coast that own a bed and breakfast and I said, "Absolutely." But that's just a bunch of talk and I probably wouldn't ride out something as powerful as Katrina. I like to think I'm strong, but 160 mph winds and 40 foot waves? Are you kidding? Storms put our humanity in perspective.

So what could be worse than all the damage we're seeing on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, Headline News, The Pet Channel, and the "We're a bunch of idiots in the path of a Category 5 Hurricane telling you that no one should ever be in the path of a Category 5 Hurricane" Channel? How about going through a storm and not hearing anything? How about seeing the awesome power of something so much greater than who we are and not coming out of it hearing God? What's worse than a storm. Stupid people who think they can beat it.

I always thought that movie with George What's-His-Name in it about the perfect storm was stupid because they had this moment when they realized that they could go in the exact opposite direction of the storm and live or go directly into the storm risking life and limb so that they could keep their catch and restore their damaged reputations as fisherman. Of course, they choose to go into the storm and the movie made us want to be happy for them because they had faced the storm as men and were not afraid. But they were stupid. They fought an unwinnable battle and Hollywood made us buy the lie that we should applaud that. They were deaf men in a storm.

If you really listen, you can hear things in the wind. They whisper things about how small we are and how strong the storm is. They remind us that we really can't get through these moments on our own and that the smartest among us will realize his weakness and cry out to the only One who is powerful enough to speak in a storm and still be heard. God is speaking.

Are you listening?