"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, "for our God is a consuming fire!" (Hebrews 12:28 & 29)
Since I'm updating about the hurricane I feel like I should share about the earthquake that took place earlier this week!
August 23, 2011--
I was sitting at my desk on the 6th floor of our building, about 5 blocks from the White House and started to feel some rumbling. I stand up to look outside, thinking a big truck must be going by. As it continues and I don't see anything strange outside the rumbling/vibrating turns into our building swaying from side to side. My reaction is to stay rooted in my spot, staring out the window, as I wonder if our building is going to collapse. The wiser people in my office were calling us away from the windows and we all stood there for a moment. We quickly see that people are leaving the building so we grabbed our phones and purses and followed.
When we got down to the street, we realized that it was not just our building. I immediately contacted a couple of people in the case that cell service wouldn't be around long and I didn't want them to worry. At this point we didn't know if it was a terrorist attack or earthquake and I was still waiting for something else to take place. People were saying it was like 9/11, my biggest thought was that it was the metro. Others mentioned a plane crash. For about 8 minutes no one had any idea what was going on. Cell reception was spotty, but from within our group we heard from the Capitol, Alexandria, and North Carolina and knew that at it couldn't be an attack, thank God.
We stood out there for some time and really didn't know what to do from there. Thankfully it wasn't chaotic, but an excited uncertainty filled the air. Can they predict another one coming? Can we go back in the building? Should we get away from the buildings? After a while we went inside to close up our computers and leave for the day. I was still pretty shaky by the time I made it to my car for the traffic jammed 8 mile drive home. I envisioned buildings falling or the 14th Street Bridge collapsing with a big aftershock. I really was quite shaken with the whole thing.
At home my frames were off the wall, a shelf had fallen, and in the intensity of the day I didn't even notice until Wednesday that there was a layer of sand/rock around the sides of my room from our ceilings. I live in a pretty old building so apparently it was pretty noisy when it all took place!
The events of this week are just a powerful reminder of what little control we have in this world. God can move mountains and oceans, people and hearts, and it can be so hard to trust in His plan. I sit quietly, clinging to His promises and amazed by His grace.
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