Tornados & Corndogs

I know right? That's quite a title for this post, but trust me when I say it will all make a lot of sense when I'm done typing out my thoughts for you guys!

This weekend my husband, Alan, and I had an out-of-town wedding to attend, we decided since it was a little out of the way that we would snag a hotel for the night, and have a leisurely Sunday brunch and mosey our way back home when we were ready. Cue the wedding: A gorgeous outdoor (and very toasty) ceremony, thank the Lord for breezy dresses; followed by a nice cool reception indoors. While at the reception the dance floor was set up out on the back porch, but when it came close to the time for the first dance, the DJ came in and said that a dangerous thunderstorm was vastly approaching so everyone quickly adjusted the indoor reception to accommodate for the DJ and became the dance floor. One minute the sky was bright, with blue skies and fluffy clouds, and the next it was ominously dark as the wind began to pick up speed. The rain came with a force to be reckoned with, bringing hail to follow suit as the winds whipped around like it too was ready to whip back and forth on the dance floor. Once things began to settle down, and the night slowed, Alan and I decided to head back to the hotel to enjoy a relaxing evening together. We hadn't eaten much at the wedding because it was still reasonably early, so we thought, "Hey, there's a Sonic right across the street from our hotel, let's grab some corndogs and mozzarella sticks" (he knows the way to my heart with those cheesy sticks of goodness). From the venue to our hotel was a quick 25 min drive, which on the way home took a nice 40ish min. On our way about ten minutes in, the weather began to pick up again, we had to dodge some big branches and debris in the road, the wind picked up again so much that the car was pulling, and the lightning was nonstop and was putting on quite the strobe light show, and the rain was coming at us sideways, so much so that we could barely see the road in front of us. The regular speed limit was 75, and we were barely pushing 45; it was darker and we noticed that there were cars in ditches and that the surrounding area had lost power for miles on end. Needless to say, it was a wee bit stressful, but we pushed forward toward the sweet hope of those corn dogs! Sweet relief! Once we entered the town we were staying in we saw that there was power and that people were out and about. So we excitedly and with much relief, pulled into Sonic only to find that part of the building had been torn off and was laying in the drive-through path, and they informed us that they were not taking orders...in fact, none of the places around were taking orders. With much irritation due to driving in the stressful weather, and being hangry (which is dangerous when it's not just one but both of you) we begrudgingly pulled into our hotel and got out and were greeted by more wind and rain getting us both quite soggy and even more miserable. One of the workers was walking in behind us and she was saying that there was a tornado that had whipped through the area, she recorded it as she was stuck on a bridge with other cars being flipped over. We were very thankful that we had missed it and only had to deal with the aftermath of its mess.

Once we got inside we went and got changed into dry comfy clothes and wandered downstairs to see what the hotel had, and what did we find? A treasure trove of instant mac and cheese, candy bars, some cold water, and CORNDOGS! We giggled and we made our way upstairs to our room to microwave the bounty we had just scored. It was hard to contain our laughter at this point because we were so tired and hungry that even microwaved mac & cheese, and corndogs sounded like a delicacy. We made a quick little live video explaining how our evening had gone, and no sooner had we hit post, and grabbed our food to warm up, wouldn't you know the power went out! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? We started laughing harder because we couldn't believe how comical the night continued to go. Surely the hotel had backup generators, we thought?! Noooooope. We were without power. ALL. NIGHT. LONG! No corndogs, no AC (you might as well put me out of my misery without that) no lights, no nothing. Just us, and the muggy darkness. I'm not gonna lie to yall, I was not a happy camper, and add being hangry and you've got a pretty strong cocktail of nope. It was a pretty sleepless night, between the symphony of growls that my stomach was making, and my body sticking to the bed, I wasn't having it. We woke the next morning to people walking (in heels from the sounds of it) above our room, people slamming doors, and talking loudly in the halls, and no coffee or breakfast in sight at the lovely nonexistent continental breakfast. We decided to check out early and find somewhere to eat some breakfast that was out of the town we were staying in since our original plans were unable to happen due to the grid all around being down. About 25min later we found ourselves in another town that seemingly had some damage, but thankfully there was POWER! And you know what that meant?! No, we weren't eating corndogs for breakfast, you weirdos! We found a great breakfast joint and quickly ordered some iced coffees and a nice warm, delicious breakfast. Once we were caffeinated, and our bellies were full, we began the final trek home with much more happy conversation, to say the least. Because let me tell you, even though he hadn't had coffee, my hubby is a total morning person and he had WAY too much energy for me as I was stuck next to him in our car lol.

But as we continued, I was thinking back to the night's adventures, and how Alan and I had managed to laugh through most of it, I was reminded of a few scriptures. In 1 Thess 5:16-18, it says, "Let joy be your continual feast (well look at that) Make your life a prayer. And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God's perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus." Also, in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!" Life often brings us storms, some of them are simple rainstorms where we can shake off the rain and keep trudging forward, other times it's like a hurricane with brute force winds that knock us off our feet, and even we have tornados; spinning us seemingly out of control and chaos laughs loudly in our face. But friends, even in the midst of the hardest storms/trials we may face, there is always joy to be found. It may be difficult to see/find in those moments, but I promise you the Lord is there with an outstretched hand to give it to you. So what storms are you facing today? Maybe the storm is over and you're dealing with the aftermath of debris and broken things, but I promise that the sun is shining above those dark clouds that are still looming over you. There is joy, peace, laughter, and rest that are yours to grip when you feel weary and downtrodden. The Lord promised that he would never leave or forsake us, all we have to do is call on the name of Jesus and He will come running to aid us in our storms. You never know, he may even come with a bouquet of corndogs and mozzarella sticks! He's just that good! Hear me when I say that no matter what, you are not alone, no matter how much you may feel that way, call to Him and watch as He calms the storms in your life. You are so loved, my friends. Be encouraged and go eat a corndog!