It was the evening of August 13, 1987. I was a young man struggling to make ends
meet in the world, and also a very young man in the Lord. I had a job from a temporary service that I
had to walk about 10 miles to get to. A
pretty good walk, but one had to do what one has to do to get by.
The job I was working was at a factory working 3rd shift, 10:30pm-7am. It was one of those really boring monotonous jobs that did not require much brain activity, but at least it was feeding me temporarily. It was a good company though so there was always the hope that the temporary job would lead to a permanent one.
I had to start off to work about 8pm to get there on time
walking. The day had not been a
particularly good day. Frankly, the month
had not been a particularly good month, nor the year a particularly good year
either. I was bouncing around from home
to home, job to job, living hand to mouth.
I was questioning my faith, wondering why all these bad things were
happening to me. I was mad at God and
mad at the world.
On the way to work the clouds had begun building up, and building up rapidly. As the sun was setting I began seeing a lot of lightning and the clouds began closing in as they grew. The clouds seemed to match my mood as I was having it out with God on the way to work. I was not happy about what was going on in my life and I was letting God know this in no uncertain terms.
Finally, about half way to my job, it began to rain. I started to complain about that too. After a few minutes of getting wet, I looked up in the sky and said, “ok God, give me your best shot, I can take it.” No sooner had I said that, the skies opened up it rained like I had never seen it rain before. It was like standing underneath a waterfall. Lightning bolts were crashing to the ground all around me, almost as if seeking me out. Before I even got to work, the ditches had filled up and the roads were beginning to get flooded over. The winds were blowing leaves and branches around and the non-stop thunder shook the ground. I walked the rest of the way to work with my head down just repeating, “I can take it”.
Finally I got to work, soaking wet and exhausted. Everyone just looked at me like the cat had just dragged something in. At least I had been smart enough to have some dry clothes in a garbage bag so I went and changed. Soon after arriving the power went out for an hour or so and everyone stood in the loading dock watching the incredible lightning storm and the deluge of rain that just kept falling. Finally the power came back on and we went back to work.
At lunch time, the boss came over to my work station and informed me that I was no longer needed at that job, so it was time for me to go home at 2:30 in the morning. It had already been storming for 6 straight hours and now I had to go back out into it. I had no place to go… I now had no job… and it was still pouring rain on me as I walked silently and humbly back to town.
It took a while longer getting back to town as I had to detour around several flooded out areas. Finally about the first light of dawn the rains ended. Exhausted, dejected, demoralized, and humbled, I could not go on any further. I walked out into a field and lay down on the ground and was soon asleep.
I don’t know how long I had been lying there, but I opened my eyes and sat up to see a police officer jump back scared out of his wits like he had seen a ghost! “GEEZ! You scared the heck out of me! I thought you were a dead body!” “No,” I replied, “Not dead, but dead tired.” The officer gave me a ride back into town and I went about my way from there. Later on I found out, God had given me the best shot known in that area since the flood.
A couple of things happened from this though. I learned, do not tempt the Lord thy God. And it was also confirmed that, yes indeed He was there, and that He was listening. I got seriously spanked, but from it found a greater faith.
Here is the article confirming the record rainfall of that day.
http://worldhistoryproject.org/1987/8/13/the-chicago-flood-of-1987
