DID PAT ROBERTSON'S PRAYER REALLY MOVE THAT HURRICANE?!

"And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!" (Matthew 8:26-27)

As I write, there is a huge and dangerous hurricane (Hurricane Sandy) off the Carolinas in the Atlantic Ocean. The possible track of this storm and weather forecasts have been "all over the place". We are getting a lot of what I call "gloom 'n doom" from the Boston media. People act as though the worst storm to hit New England in at least a hundred years is about to strike. This situation has caused me to think back to late September of 1985. At that time, Hurricane Gloria was about to strike Virginia Beach, Virginia. Famous and somewhat controversial television evangelist M.G. "Pat" Robertson went on his "700 Club" program and prayed. As I recall, he not only prayed, but essentially commanded Hurricane Gloria to turn and depart from the Virginia coast in the Name of Jesus. In fact, Hurricane Gloria did exactly that to many people's utter shock. Did Pat Robertson, by his prayer of faith actually move Hurricane Gloria? It is true that hurricanes are very strange storms which often defy meteorological logic. They have been know to make sudden drastic turns which make no sense. SO, DID Pat Robertson really move that hurricane? Only God knows. It's possible it would have moved anyway and that he had nothing to do with it. But, as crazy as this will sound to non-Pentecostals and non-charismatics, if you take the New Testament seriously and pretty literally, it IS POSSIBLE to change the weather with a prayer of faith. Incidentally, two days after Pat Robertson's prayer, Hurricane Gloria struck eastern Massachusetts hard. Our residence in Walpole had no electricity for (I think) five days. Some communities in southeastern Massachusetts had no electricity for well over a week. There was a lot of damage. So, if Pat really did that, I guess those of us in New England should have been sarcastically saying, "Thanks a lot, Pat!"

The thing of praying and believing God for a drastic change in weather has gone through my mind a few times over the past few days. I really don't want Hurricane Sandy in any way, shape, or form! But, I learned a drastic lesson about this business of "praying the prayer of faith to change the weather" back in 1999 that makes me very reluctant to engage in this sort of business. This is a very personal story that could make me the butt of jokes and thought of as a very foolish man, but if it does, I'll just have to say, "Pat Robertson, move over!"

It was late December of 1998, to be exact. The upcoming Sunday was the first Sunday of January and the first Sunday of 1999. Like many pastors, I considered the first Sunday sermon of any year vitally important. This sermon would set the spiritual tone for the whole year. It was not just any sermon. It was big. It was like a coach in the NFL whose team is way behind at halftime standing up before his players and verbally "giving them all he had" as far as motivation and exhortation. I was already working hard on my first sermon of 1999. I felt so passionate about it. As far as I was concerned it just had to be preached on the first Sunday of the year. The second Sunday just would not do. There was a problem, however, and that was the weather forecast for the first weekend of 1999. It called for a big snowstorm! Most likely, church service would have to be cancelled. IF we had service, there would probably be 7 people present. I thought about Pat Robertson and the hurricane back in 1985. Could I really pray the prayer of faith, command the weather to change, and have this happen? I decided I would do exactly that! I went outside and faced the direction the snowstorm would be coming from. Out loud and firmly I prayed, commanded, and believed there would be NO snowstorm for Sunday in the Name of Jesus!

Sunday morning came. I looked outside. No snow! NO SNOW! I was ECSTATIC! As I did every Sunday, I drove to the church early to turn on the heat and the coffeemaker. The temperature was around 40. It was drizzling. The driving was fine. Ninety minutes later, the church leaders were there drinking coffee and looking forward to the morning's activities. A phone call came in from Bernadette who lived in Medway, ten miles south of Framingham. She said she'd driven a couple of miles from home and it was treacherous- all dangerous black ice. She and her daughters were staying home. The Lincolns from Ashland had come to church but did report that at their home near the Hopkinton line, there was indeed some ice. Again, downtown Framingham was fine, however, so I was still very happy. We had a good service. I preached my dynamic, important sermon. I felt very victorious and satisfied.

Within twenty-four hours, our family received awful news. This was awful news that pretty much the whole evangelical Christian community of the MetroWest suburbs of Boston received. A girl about fourteen-years-old from a wonderful Christian family had been killed in a tragic accident in Hopkinton near the Ashland line. Her mother's car had gone out of control on ice and was off the road. She and her mom got out of the car. Another car came along, went out of control, and STRUCK THEM, killing the girl! It turned out that the girl had gone to the same nursery school as my daughter Amy. In fact, they were in the same nursery school class. This tragedy was so sad and was felt in so many households. The following weekend, our family attended the girl's memorial service at an Episcopal church. It was, of course, a very sad service. Suddenly, in the middle of the service, I had a HORRIBLE thought: I had done my big Pat Robertson thing and prayed away that big snowstorm and we got the drizzle in Framingham and the black ice in other areas instead. Was this death somehow MY fault?!

I I hung my head down, and had to control myself, for I wanted to burst into uncontrollable sobs. I can't begin to say how selfish and how horrible I felt.

Later that day, after coming home, I took a walk. I took a long walk. And I prayed and thought and prayed and thought and prayed and thought. I know those who are not "born again Christians" will not understand this, but I believe God spoke to me that afternoon...NOT audibly, but in that "still, small voice" deep inside my spirit.

"No, this is not your fault. You had nothing to do with the accident nor with that girl's death. But LEARN A LESSON from this! Praying and commanding the weather to change can and does happen in some cases. But there is always the potential for consequences from changing the weather...sometimes grave consequences. This is not something you ever do casually or lightly."

So, since then, I don't command the weather to change or anything like that! DID my prayer really change the weather? As with Pat Robertson, I don't know. Only God knows. But this is in the category of, "Be careful what you pray for, you just might GET it!"

Will Hurricane Sandy really be a very bad storm in Massachusetts over the next couple of days? I don't know. DID Pat Robertson's prayer really move that hurricane? What do you think?