How do you even prepare yourself for something like the catastrophic events that have unfolded in our little community over the past few days?

How do you prepare yourself for the reports of destruction and the reports of family and friends who have been lost?

The things I have heard these last few days have blurred together in my head and have replayed over and over like bad scenes from a Hollywood movie.

It still feels like, at any moment, Steven Spielberg will come running out from behind the Chat and Chew in Phil Campbell yelling, “CUT!” and all the trees will stand upright, all the power poles will un-snap, all the bricks will be re-stacked, all the homes will have lights in the windows and children playing in the yards… everything will be like it was.

But the dust has settled and no one is there to make the devastation stop.

The surreal feeling just keeps swirling around me because we live in Alabama, not Oklahoma. This is the kind of destruction you only read about and see on TV — that takes place in areas that are wide open and completely flat.  It’s not something that happens 15 minutes down the road, on a mountain, and to people you know and love and grew up with.

As I’ve tried to make sense of the sheets of metal wrapped around water towers, cars mangled and mashed to pieces, and homes and buildings flattened and obliterated, I’ve come to one conclusion: I cannot make sense of any of it.

I’ve felt helpless as I’ve watched precious families grieve over precious loved ones. I’ve felt sick as I’ve listened to tale after gut-wrenching tale of people losing multiple family members all in a matter of seconds.

I’ve felt weary as I’ve gazed at the acres upon acres of destruction and mayhem right in our county. And I’ve felt overwhelming waves of grief and sorrow that just don’t seem to fade away with the days.

But in the midst of one of the gravest times in our county’s history, I’ve also felt encouraged by the outpouring of love and support from people who have laid aside their busy schedules to lend a helping hand, pass out a bottle of water, clear a pile of debris and be a shoulder to cry on.

People from all over are mobilizing and organizing relief efforts to help all those who are without homes, power, water, food and so many other comforts others of us are blessed and fortunate to have.

Praise the Lord for these people for what they’re doing and what they will continue to do for many weeks to come. May He be with us all as we try to heal, recover and rebuild.

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed… Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” – 2 Corinthians 4: 8-9, 16