Ya know, I really don’t have a clue…but, I do know that

Storms in life, both figurative and literal, have the potential to ulitmately tear down or somehow even build back up even stronger

But, since during a hurricane things get thrown around in more ways than one, you have to be prepared for an “adjustment” of sorts… some bigger than others.

So far, as a married couple in our own home, Brandy and I have survived a handful of hurricanes. The ones to affect us the most… Katrina, Gustav, and now Isaac. Yes there were some others in there, but, to no real issues for us other than some yard clean up…well, and a visitor in the back room… but we’ll get to that.

Many of you already know this, but, the day Katrina kicked the daylights out of the Gulf Coast, and flooded the rest, I was in Baton Rouge with my family while I waited in the waiting room to see my father who’d just survived a heat stroke and heart attack just the evening before. I can remember rushing down the road to my parents house after receiving that call where you just KNOW something is wrong the instant you pick up the phone. I don’t remember much other than praying, “Lord, please don’t take him yet… we need him…I need him.” My wonderful wife was with me upset as well and likely a little concerned about my driving.

Well, miracles happened as we sat in the hospital during the hurricane.  Dad came through good and the blockage that was causing problems for him ended up being gone when they decided to do a final look before surgery…which in itself, medically speaking, would have been very difficult considering the not-normal twisting of the artery they would have to navigate to do what they do.

I remember looking out a window at some point during all this watching a small dove on a branch flowing steadily with the wind. It seemed to have so much peace that looked as if it was sleeping. I’m amazed how I can remember that still today.  Amazing how God’s creatures can have peace in the MIDDLE of such violent storms… yet we seem to have trouble there often.

My family pulled together and people helped us clean my parent’s yard and well, just the story of how dad even made it to the hospital was truly a miracle as the only person who actually knew where to find him was the one that was found quickly and who drug him out of the woods to the truck. I give thanks to my Lord Jesus for taking care of my dad and giving us the strength to do all that needed to be done, even in the darkest hours in the middle of a massive hurricane.

Fast forward to Gustav. A pine tree top went through our roof and poked a hole large enough to let some water in pretty good. My father and some family members quickly came and patched it up as both Brandy and I get activated in our jobs for hurricanes. Insurance did us good and all of it was fixed.

Now Isaac…oh Isaac. Of all the water that was dumped on us with Katrina/Rita, Gustav, etc., I’ve never seen our area flood like this. Both ends of our road were under. But, eventually it dried up and we made it home

Now what, you might ask, does this have to do with working out and/or being healthy? If ever you’ve gone through physical exhaustion, while having to work, wondering if your home was still standing and if your family was safe, dealing with people who seem to lose their minds at the first glimpse of rough weather… you know that it all takes a bit of mental fortitude to push on. When you get that “gut check” of a phone call saying someone you love is hurt… when you just don’t know if you still have a home to go home to… when you can’t hold the one you love when you know they are upset and stressed… you still have to move and get things done that need to get done.

Something I took from the military is that life is filled with things you don’t want to deal with or do, but, they are necessary. Sometimes you have to bite down and keep on keepin’ on. You do have the choice. You can lay down and do nothing. But, doing nothing can be worse than doing something.

My point in all of this is that there are days that the effort to eat right, exercise, and just be healthy, are not as easy as others. There are going to be days when you just do not want to do it anymore. There are going to be times when you want to just quit. It’s in those times you have to look deeper at why you do what you do. Look at why you started. If the reason was big enough to start, it’s big enough to keep you going.

Brandy and I were married 7 months when I was deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan.  We missed every “first” holiday and our first anniversary.  My guys knew it because I was mad all day.  Christmas was a joyful time, but, lonely.  I was constantly worried about how she was doing and knew she was wanting and needing me home.  Many times I would feel like my heart was being ripped out when on the phone she would start to cry.  But, I had no choice, I had to move forward.  I had to be strong for her and myself and the guys I was in charge of.  I had a job to do.  Leaving her that day was one of the most painful moments of my life.  I wanted to hold her and not let her go until I KNEW she would be ok.  But, I had to let her go and trust my Lord God to take care of her… hands FAR better than mine to do so.

So, I let go… and got on the bus.  Something changed in me that day.  Why?  Because it had to.

Leaving for deployment after being married 7 months

There is something about going through a difficult trial that when you’ve made it through, knowing you stuck to the path even through the most challenging of circumstances, that makes you feel like you can accomplish anything.

Going through good days where work was smooth and we all got along well and the job went well made things a little easier at times.  Then, we’d be reminded of where we were when an RPG launched from hiding miles away would land in our base.  We’d see the infantry loaded up on trucks to ship out on a mission, loaded and armored up.  We’d hear the occasional land mind cook off (explode) in the middle of the valley outside our perimeter.  There were days when things went well and days when all went to… well… you get the picture.

But, none of that changed the fact that we were there for a reason.  Regardless of what we believed about any of it or how we felt about each other, we were there to support one another, to support the people doing what most will or would not, putting their lives on the line.  There were days we did NOT want to get up… days we wanted to quit… working in near 120 degree weather, lifting heavy materials, almost being run over by crazy locals who don’t have to know how to drive right, just drive, as the went from site to site within the base, all the while praying someone didn’t sneak explosives in from outside and try to kill us or anyone else.  NONE of that changed the fact we had to do what we were there to do.

Then, the joy of stepping on to that C130 for the final time.  The feeling of being safely home when the wheels of that plane touched down in our home state… the feeling of seeing the most beautiful site I could see, my wife, as I walked toward her… the feeling of holding her in my arms and knowing now that I would never let her go again as long as it was within my power… all that was worth going through.  Why?  Because it made us stronger and closer than we would have been otherwise.

Surviving that trial further solidified what we had and blessed us beyond what we could have expected.

So today, find that something in you that says, “I will not give up, no matter what. I will not quit, no matter what. I refuse to be defeated and I WILL do what must be done.”  If you still believe you’re not strong enough, find a friend, a true friend, and lean on them.  You may find they needed to lean on you too.  Together, you can hold each other up long enough to weather the storm.

Home again to my girl!

Just know that you have it within yourself to accomplish what you may not think possible.  It sometimes takes impossible situations to bring out of us the impossibly possible!  Know that on the other side is the reward.  If you do what you do for yourself alone, it’s one thing.  But, when you do it for yourself and for those you love, you become impossibly STRONG!

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