Sunday 6am-7am: HARVEY

About 2am Sunday morning my wife and I realized that this water wasn’t going to stop coming up. We’d living in our house about 10 years and never once had anything like this even come close. It was hard to believe.

We spent the next 4 hours while our 7 kids slept upstairs oblivious to this coming danger, moving everything we could upstairs. About 5:30 I told Glenna she may as well go to bed and that I would stay up and keep an eye on the water.

There was this quiet moment now. The family asleep. The rain pouring outside. The water rising toward everything we had built in this house over the past decade. I didn’t have anything else to do but just sit there. I parked myself just inside our front door with my Star Wars beach towel and I just waited. I could start to hear the water lapping up against the front door. It was a feeling 1000s of people have had this week, and that feel is called “powerless”.

So then it began. from 6am-7am God and I wrestled. “Hey God…I really need You to turn this water around. I’m awre you are watching and last time I check I was Your kid and as my good Father I’m sure that You don’t want my stuff to get messed up or my family to be in danger and displaced, so in Your infinite wisdom please stop this water.”

Man what feels wrong about that? Well in the moment for me NOTHING! but it’s completely like my 5 year old looking at me and saying “Dad, I know you are smarter than me but here’s what you are going to do because it’s what I want.” HA! I can promise you what type of laughing response they would get.

I would like to say that I realized right then I was out of line but I’m a desperate man at this point so I spend the next hour pleading with God

“God think of all of the good things I can do if I don’t get flooded! I can help all of my neighbors, donate my time, my clothes, my money. God, just wait and see, I’m going to be Your champion!” The water still rising. —

This went on for the whole hour. As the tide of my hope of staying dry was waining, the current of my faith was rising. If faith is believing in what you cannot see then I was about to be thrust into faith because I could not see how this was good.

7am on the dot, I pressed on my floorboard by the door and water bubbled up. That was it. The water was here. I took a deep breath, stood up, and began to wake up my family.

The next several hours consisted of the craziness of getting 7 children and the family dog rescued by canoe along with our neighbors, then days of rain.

Here on the other side of it, who knew best? Me or God? What has he done that’s worth all of this trouble? Being the victim myself let me see the power of the church and of neighbors moving. Today will be more of the same. Our street will be filled with laughter and love as we work together again to clean up. Not only our church but the Church in our town will be there alongside the city and continue to make this a new day for Friendswood.

Then there’s this video I made. I was retrieving some supplies after the worst night of the storm and I wanted to reassure Rylor that his piano was going to be ok. I sat down and began to play whatever was coming to me just for about a minute. It was the first time that I had sat down and taken a second. It all really hit me for the first time in that moment. This was all unavoidable and we would make it thorugh.

Later that day our pastor Bruce Wesley, who was stuck in Boise, shared somethings on Facebook Live reminding us that this is the time for the church to rise up. He reminded us that Romans 8 tells us that we will encounter suffering but God is present and He will do something with this for His glory and our good.

That message coupled with this video of me sitting at my piano playing in 2 feet of water has resonated with people. It has done for them what it did for me. People have found in hope this image. It has been speaking to now over a million people all over the world. Seriously WHAT THE HECK!

Now hear me, the world news cycle is fast spinning merry-go-round and I will be flung from it momentarily, and I’m fine with that, but I look back at my prayer from 6am-7am and I feel foolish. Who was I to try and tell God His plan. For all that He has done with this and all He is going to do, it is so worth putting down new floors, building new walls, living out of a suitcase for a while. Thank you God, that in Your infinite wisdom You have allowed me to be a tiny part of what you are doing! Soak up that glory, it is Yours.

If you are looking to give to a relief effort, our church’s website www.clearcreekrelief.org is a trusted and reputable place. Even today dozens of work crews will be hitting the streets to help our area.

Play your part, say yes to God, love your neighbor.