WOW kinda weather

If you were not in Atlanta this weekend, I honestly feel for you. I cannot remember a more perfect weekend of weather than what we just had. Actually, it is now Monday at 10.42 and it seems not to have left us. This is the first time my family and I have been in the U.S. in September since 1999. I had forgotten how beautiful fall is (today in Novosibirsk, it is raining and 42 degrees) and had forgotten how loudly God speaks through nature of this sort.

Of course, round these parts, God has been speaking through other forms of weather lately too, namely hurricanes. While not a gentle whisper, you can be sure that God is desiring to communicate something to us. Ever thought of that? Ever thought that it is God's desire to connect with the world through the tragedies of Beslan, Russia, Hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Ivan? I don't pretend to know why he allows/causes such things to happen but I am sure he is speaking. I heard Alan Henderson (wonderful leader of the Southern Crescent Church in Tyrone, GA) yesterday say that trite and shallow answers to heady questions simply will not do. He's right. It is a hard question to know why God is allowing all of this nature to come our way here in the south. Why is God using hurricanes to speak to us right now instead of something a bit more "calm"? Why does God allow my dad to live on with Alzheimer's or your relative continue suffering with cancer? Maybe what God is desiring to say to us right now should not illicit calm at all but rather a stormy conviction and shake up within. I don't know why he is doing this but I am quite sure that it is God who is doing it. Indeed, he is speaking. Again, the question rings forth, "will we listen?"