DID PAT ROBERTSON REALLY MAKE THAT HURRICANE GO AWAY?

There is something that pastors hate.  I know we aren't supposed to hate, but there is something that pastors hate:  Pastors hate major snowstorms that take place late Saturday night and/or early Sunday morning!  The worst part is when television or radio commentators make statements during such "snow events" such as, "Isn't it GREAT that the storm is taking place on a Sunday?  Nobody has to go anyplace!"

Those of you who live in the northeastern U.S. are well aware that a major snowstorm has been forecasted for tonight and tomorrow.  Yup, it's a pastor's nightmare.  It's especially tough in a situation such as our church is in at the moment- having desperate financial problems and being absolutely dependent upon the tithes and offerings from week to week.  In early 2005 we faced a Sunday snow situation, and I made the radical choice to move the "Sunday morning service" to Monday night.  Two-thirds of our people showed up on Monday night- we had a good service, and we took in a reasonably good offering.  I've already got that plan in mind should we have to cancel church tomorrow.

If we apply the "What Would Jesus Do?" principle to weather situations, it can bring us to some interesting conclusions.  Mark chapter four tells us that once Jesus and the disciples were on a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee.  A terrible storm suddenly arose.  The disciples were terrified and expected the worst.  But Mark 4:39 tells us that Jesus simply rebuked the storm saying, "Peace, be still," and it stopped!

Back in 1985, Pat Robertson freaked a lot of people out by publicly rebuking a hurricane that was headed straight for the Tidewater area of Virginia.  Amazingly, the storm changed course and left the area unscathed.  He claimed he was exercising the same authority Jesus had exercised over the Galilee storm, but even many of Pat's biggest supporters just didn't buy that.

On one of the last days of December 1998, a major snowstorm was forecasted to hit the Boston area on the following Sunday, which would be the first Sunday of 1999.  I was deeply disappointed!  I had planned a special service and a very special sermon for the first Sunday of 1999.  I had prayed about it.  I had felt good about it.  I was believing God for an outstanding service for the first Sunday of 1999.  This snowstorm was going to ruin everything!  

"I'm NOT going to have to cancel church this Sunday!" I thought.

I was determined!  This was not at all my usual habit or pattern, but in a sense I "pulled a Pat Robertson".  I can still see myself walking around Butterworth Park in Framingham.

"In JESUS Name that snowstorm will not happen!  I will not have to cancel church!" I yelled it right out loud.  I suppose anyone hearing me would have thought I was out of my mind, but I meant business and I was confident!

That Sunday morning, it was not snowing at all when I got up!  As the morning progressed, it began to drizzle but it was a little too warm for snow.  I was ecstatic!  My prayer had worked!

Shortly before Sunday School, one of our Members who lived in Medway phoned in.  She told me the roads in Medway were ice covered and treacherous.  She'd turned around and gone home.  I couldn't understand that, because there was no ice at all in downtown Framingham.  A family that lives on the extreme western end of the town of Ashland arrived at church shortly thereafter, reporting very icy conditions near their home, but agreeing that Framingham was just rainy.  We did have a very good morning service that day.  By the time we were leaving church, our parking lot was becoming icy.  Once I drove onto the public streets, they'd been treated and tbe driving was fine.

It was the next day that the news was reported that on Sunday morning a car had gone out of control on the ice in Hopkinton, hit a teenage girl and killed her, and badly injured her mother.  My wife knew them.  The girl had been in my daughter Amy's nursery school class about ten years earlier.  Several days later, we attended the girl's funeral at the Episcopal Church in Hopkinton.  In the middle of the service, I suddenly had an awful thought:  I had prayed so fervently for no snow and that I could hold my service...had my prayer cost that girl her life?


That evening I took a long soul-searching walk- by Butterworth Park among other places.  The Lord spoke to me- oh, not in an audible voice, but with His "still, small voice" deep inside my heart.  It became clear to me that the girl died as a result of a tragic accident which I certainly did not cause, but that we need to be very careful about praying (dare I say, demanding) that God change the weather.  So, I'm not praying any prayers about this storm.  What happens happens.

Did Pat Robertson really make that hurricane go away?  Did my prayers really change the weather for the first Sunday of 1999?  Only God knows.  But as the words of an old Christian solo say, "Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand; But I know Who holds tomorrow, and I know He holds my hand."