"A Looming Storm On The Horizon..."

"It's going the other way." Those five words have become a running joke between my wife and me whenever there is one of Florida's garden variety thunderstorms rumbling on the horizon. It was first uttered by yours truly a number of years ago as Judi and I were returning late one night from Lakeland to St. Petersburg. Traveling west on Interstate 275 we could see non-stop lightening flashing across the distant horizon. The radio announcer was advising that what we were observing was the advancing line of a weather front that had the potential to unleash "deadly lightening, hail, and the possibility of tornadoes." Anxious to get home and to sleep after a very tiring day, I trotted out my weather procrastinating skills and opined that it appeared to me that the storm was "going the other way."

At that time the narrow three-mile bridge that transversed upper Tampa Bay consisted of four lanes, two in either direction with no center divider. In the best of conditions the bridge was the motoring public's nightmare, with accidents - many with fatalities - almost a daily occurrence. To cross that bridge at night invited an even greater opportunity for catastrophic mishap. But to do so during the height of a thunderstorm was pure folly...as we soon found out. The storm that I had predicted was going the other way" was soon upon us in all of its gathering, unspent fury. Having passed the point of no return, we had no choice but to proceed across the bridge westward toward St. Petersburg. To say that we soon found ourselves in the midst of a swirling hell grossly under-evaluates the intensity of the situation. Judi turned to fervent prayer as I strained to hold the car under control in the buffeting gale force winds, straining to even detect the sparkle of the hood ornament just four feet in front of my intense gaze. For the next fifteen minutes I entertained ever increasing doubts that we would not make it all the way across the bridge, envisioning that the next violent gust of wind would surely propel us over the concrete guardrail into the dark watery pit of the bay thirty feet below. As though we had driven through a curtain, the leading edge of the storm passed and we found ourselves on the other side of it's spent fury where I could again see the road ahead of me for a greater distance than just a mere couple of feet. Emotionally we were spent. It took Judi and me quite a number of days to place that harrowing experience into the context of being just a bad memory.

And now more dark clouds loom on the horizon. Not of the weather variety, but of economic turmoil. I was informed by my employer yesterday afternoon that a two million dollar construction project we were counting on to see us through the balance of the year had been canceled. The potential consequence...my services as the company's chief estimator and senior project manager...would either be reduced from full time to a consultant's position or eliminated altogether. The jury is still out. We have sufficient projects underway currently that will underwrite my weekly salary for perhaps another thirty to forty-five days. After that? Like I said...the jury is still out.

I use the memory of that violent storm endured so many years ago to give me the hope I need to face a very uncertain future. Judi and I weathered that storm. We will weather this one as well. I have behind me a history where I found myself without employment, but never without resources. Time and time again the Lord has pointed me in a direction that soon had me back on my feet. He has been ever faithful in that way. I have no reason to doubt Him now in these present circumstances. The storm is looming most assuredly. But with faith first in Him, who has sustained me all of these years, and the talents and abilities He has granted me, I will come through yet another dark curtain of uncertainty and see again the renewed promise of God's plan for me to carry on. I'll keep you posted...