It’s September. We officially have three months left in the chaos of 2020 and it’s been one crazy ride. From the very beginning of 2020, we knew it was going to be a long year. In January, we had a possible WWIII scare. February brought us the tragic death of the legendary icon Kobe Bryant and his daughter alongside seven others in a terrible helicopter accident. COVID-19 became a global pandemic in March and forced a worldwide shutdown. In April, the number of COVID-19 cases hit 1 million worldwide at the beginning of the month and later hit 1 million cases in the US alone. In May, the first murder hornet was spotted in Washington. The death of George Floyd sparked an outrage from people all over the world in June and brought about protesters chanting Black Lives Matter. In July, things started to look up, nothing crazy really happened around the world. Then came August. August gifted us with a derecho, a fierce windstorm that can rival hurricane speed winds. It left roughly 200,000 people in Iowa without power for a week. As crazy as 2020 has been, it’s understandable that some people might feel abandoned by God, but I can promise you that he is still very much here with us and looking out for us.

     The day the derecho hit, I was on my way home from Panera (because where else would I go to get a cinnamon crunch bagel). The sky grew darker and darker with each passing minute and out of nowhere it began pouring a mix of rain and hail. I was going maybe fifteen miles per hour down highway 100 because I couldn’t see more than three feet ahead of me, even with my brights turned on. I tried calling my dad to let him know that I was on my way home and where I was but when he picked up the phone I was able to talk to him for maybe 20 seconds before our call started to break up. I was completely alone. From there, I decided not to go home but rather find the closest building and hide behind it for shelter from the raging winds and rain. As I drove around, I kept trying to call my parents with no such luck. I began to cry because the storm just got worse and worse and it felt like it would never end. The loud winds and horizontal rain didn’t help my rising panic, but eventually I was able to safely make my way to Hy-Vee. After I was parked behind the building, I tried calling my parents again and finally my step dad picked up his phone and he stayed on the phone with me so I would feel less alone. A few moments later, our call fell through and I was alone again. 

           So much has happened this year and I know it can feel like God has abandoned us because of all the crazy and terrible things that’ve happened but no matter what the rest of the year may throw at us, we can handle it because we have God on our side.