and then there was the time that nashville nearly drowned...

(titans stadium)

we're officially in a state of emergency here.
and while there are bad things happening
(anthony's parents had a flooded basement yesterday
his granny's house has 3 ft--at least--of water sitting in it)
i'm choosing to focus on the positive

(the walmart a mile from my place--saturday mid-day)

i don't have any firsthand sensational pictures to post
like many of my friends do
and at first i was kinda bummed about that
then i quickly realized how silly that is

(on the other side of me, less than a mile away)

the fact that i don't have any awesome storm pics
no waves going through my backyard
no rivers down the street

(another major intersection--this one about 3 miles away perhaps)

it means that i'm safe
secure
and dry

many that i love aren't so lucky

(downtown street)

i will say that i don't know the status of the storage unit just yet
(and am oh-so-thankful i secured renter's insurance on the contents of it just friday!)
but the things there are just that--things.
emi is safe
i am safe
anthony and his family are safe

we're good
:)

i'll leave you with a couple of more humorous things from the storm
(because as you can see above there is much in the way of seriousness
but i--we--need to laugh)



facebook status from a friend:
K, now we know it is bad. Naomi Judd just called the TV station to report that her fence has been knocked down and that her buffalo are now roaming wild! Flooded house, yes, but wild buffalo, lookout!!

and further proof that nashville not only doesn't stop the music for water--it also doesn't stop creativity!
"Tennessee's Not Landlocked Anymore"


this one's not funny...just poignant. i love this photographic proof that you can't stop the music here, no matter what.
i think there's a whole blog post just in that statement

...i'll work on it...

Amen

Yesterday morning I was leading worship at my church, as I do regularly on the "3rd Sunday" praise team.

It was a powerful worship, and we ended it with the song God of This City. You may know it (I'll include a youtube video and lyrics at the end of this post if you don't). It ends on a powerful crescendo of "greater things are yet to come; greater things are still to be done in this city" followed by the softer yet powerful truth of "there is no one like our God...there is no one like our God"

In an acapella setting, the voices linger and resonate throughout the sanctuary for a few moments after the last note is cut off. As we basked in that moment a small child's voice, no older than 3, echoed through the auditorium:

"Amen!"

Amen indeed. There is NO ONE like our God! If the smallest of children can feel that so powerfully in her soul...who am I to question?

And yet sometimes I do.

Help me to be like a child on her Father's knee...
to grasp the most awesome and complex of truths
in the simplest of ways.

AMEN




(lyrics are included on the video--and it is the original version from Ireland so they are slightly different, so it's definitely worth a listen)

*God of This City was written by a worship band from Ireland (possibly why it's so close to my heart!) on a missions trip to Thailand. They set up the band in a brothel and sang worship songs right in the heart of the sex trade district...and this song came to them than night as they witnessed the brokenness that surrounded them--that the God they were worshiping was STILL the 'God of these people' and the 'Lord of this nation'
Makes it all the more powerful to know the story...*