The Fear of God & the Thunderstorm

                                                                            Elijah in the Storm 

He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

                                            1 Kings 19: 11-12 NRSV

Two weekends ago Ruth and I were in Killarney Provincial Park. She canoed in to Bell Lake with a longtime group of women friends while I camped on my own near the village of Killarney. On our last night, which was the Sunday, I was surprised to hear thunder and see flashes of lightning which weren't in the forecast. They didn't seem to be immediately at hand although light rain fell for a while.

When I picked Ruth up the following afternoon she and her companions asked what I thought of the storm. They had experienced a very noisy thunderstorm with long periods of intense rain. Ruth had elected to sleep in her hammock, which is enclosed by a bug net and equipped with a broad fly, or rain tarp. Even though she'd never used the fly before it proved to be waterproof. Still, she said that being suspended between two trees in a violent storm, separated from the other women who were in tents,  was an unsettling and even frightening experience. I didn't ask whether she saw her life flashing before her eyes, but she did say that the flashes of lightning were constant. I didn't inquire about her prayers either, but there may have been a few.

One of the strange things about being outdoors is that we are subject to the elements and at times it is the uncertainty and sense that we are no match for them which makes the experience more worthwhile and memorable. We've been in tents, far from any opportunity for safer shelter on a number of occasions. When our children were tweens and early teens we paddled deep into Killarney where we had to hunker down while an intense thunderstorm passed over us fairly quickly. Another time we were on the Sand River in Lake Superior Park and waited out a crazy storm while on a sandbar. We waited it out through the night in the hope that we wouldn't be washed away. On yet another occasion I was camped on an island in the North Channel of Georgian Bay with son Isaac as we watched a sweeping thunderstorm move toward us. Child abuse?...nah!

We know the often glibly used expression "it put the fear of God in me" and while those were occasions when we might not have feared the Creator we were in awe of the natural world and, yes, we did experience a degree of fear. In those moments one feels small, even insignificant, and that may be a good thing. 

As our planet experiences more unpredictable and intense weather we may be waking up to our hubris, our arrogant pride which has led us to what may be the brink of catastrophe. Can we regain a sense of humility and awe which compels us to do everything possible to bring Creation back into balance? Prayers for mercy and wisdom are certainly in order.