I learned a lot from Ike.  The learning process really started when I first found out that he was coming, to Corpus Christi.  I didn’t know for sure that he was coming but those who were in the know said that we needed to get prepared because Ike was on his way.  He was big, he was bad, he had left a path of destruction everywhere he had been so far, and now he was coming to Corpus.  My first impulse was to wait a little while just to make sure that he would be paying us a little visit over the weekend, but voices with much more experience than mine said that I had better get prepared early or I would not be able to prepare at all.  So I joined in the search for supplies that would be needed to weather the storm.  The preparations at the church are pretty extensive, especially knowing that the Red Cross was planning to set up camp here for their workers after the storm had passed.  As the last few boards were going up on the church, Sugarlump came over and notified me that it looked like Ike wouldn’t be coming to Corpus after all.  So, with only two boards to go, we called off the boarding up of the church.  A lot of work, a lot of worry, and a lot of expense went into the preparations for a storm that never came.  By the way, this wasn’t the first time that we had boarded up and prepared for a storm that never came.

Hence, life lesson #1 that Ike taught me, or at least refreshed in my mind.  Most storms that we just know are coming our way never arrive.  That is an important lesson to remember because it’s not just hurricanes that we prepare for that never come.  In fact, 90% of what we worry about never takes place.  Now don’t get me wrong because I’m certainly not saying that we should have never prepared for the storm because we should have prepared and we will need to prepare next time there is a storm threat.  However, there is a vast difference between preparing and worrying.

Life lesson #2 that Ike brought to mind reminded me of what Paul said when he told me that I am to “not only look out for my own personal interest, but also for the interest of others” (Phil. 2:4).  As it turned out Ike wasn’t coming to see us but it was going to be necessary for Sugarlump and me to go see him.  So we loaded up and drove to Houston knowing that we were needed, but not realizing just how rewarded we would be.  We were needed before the storm, during the storm, and after the storm.  Space doesn’t permit the telling of everything but I will say that, for one Sunday, I set my Bible down and picked up a chainsaw and got to help a lot of very appreciative people.  So life lesson #2 that Ike reminded me of was how much more fulfilling it is to help others than to worry about myself all of the time. 

Life lesson #3 came after the storm.  We were leaving Houston and Houston was a mess.  Where we had weathered the storm and lived our lives for the past three days was now a pretty sad place.  What had once been a thriving city was shut down for all practical purposes.  I knew of one HEB that had managed to open, but if you went there, the wait in line was three hours, and that was just to get to the point where you were permitted to enter the store.   Seven million people were without electricity.  On and on we could go just listing the destruction and problems.  But as we drove out and got a little further and a little further from Houston things were just “normal.”  You couldn’t tell that there had been a storm at all.  In fact, if we hadn’t seen it and lived it, and heard the reporters talking about it, we wouldn’t have even known there was a storm.  So what did I learn?  I learned that not very far from me and my normal life are thousands upon thousands of people who need a helping hand because they are weathering a storm, or have weathered a storm, or are about to weather a storm.  And me—well, I’m an ambassador of Christ who can be salt and light all around me if I will just move out of my comfort zone and help where the storm has hit.  Who knows, I may not have to go any further than across the street.

 Robert