Hurricane Hugo hit and crossed South Carolina 25 years ago today. The eye didn’t pass over my home, but it didn’t pass all that far away from my town. It was an eerie night followed by weeks of clean-up and recovery for our community. Others who were hit more directly required months for recovery.

What happens when the storms of life hit us? Do they bring total defeat, or do we spring back stronger than before?

I have no intentions of downplaying the seriousness and the intensity of the pain people go through during these times. Lives were lost. Many lost all of their possessions. Others lost work – some temporarily, while other jobs were lost permanently as businesses folded. Life was really hard. My husband who at that time was directly in the path of Hugo wrote a post about how Hurricane Hugo impacted him. You can read it here.

With Hugo 25 years behind us, let us consider some of the positive things that came out of it:

• Communities became stronger as they learned to work together and help one another. People got to know their neighbors.
• Many families witnessed first-hand the power and protection of God, and they shared how they survived in spite of the fierceness of the storm.
• People learned to seek God and to trust Him to help them overcome the many obstacles they had to overcome in the months ahead.
• Many churches stepped forth to show Christian love to their communities in many ways. People were drawn to the churches to seek God.
• People became more confident as they overcame and re-built their lives.

One of the ways people in their upper thirties and older can minister to the upcoming generations is to share their faith with them, and how it has helped use to survive the storms of life, and to recognize that there was still a future and a life worth living. One of the tragedies of our times is the high suicide rate among youth who cave into despair over heartbreaking situations. Age is our ally in recognizing that these set-backs are temporary.

Have you ministered to the youth in your life by sharing how your faith helped you through your storms? Please share your stories with us…

(I would be remiss if I didn’t also include a link about hurricane preparedness.)

Photo credit: NASA – Goddard Space Flight Center