2020: The Year of Exceptional Hardships

2020 has sure been a year of hardships, hasn’t it?
I can’t even begin to list all the hardships I’ve experienced so far since New Year’s Day. (I tried, but the list was too depressing, so I deleted it!)
One of the most recent difficulties (amidst everything else going on in the country and world), is that my little town of Midland in central Michigan experienced devastating flooding.
The day started like any other Michigan May day. Lots of rain, but not much more than usual. Though there were flood warnings issued for the Tittabawassee River (which is a normal-sized river), I didn’t think anything of the warnings. The river rises to flood level a couple of times a year, and it’s never a big deal. Especially because I live over TWO miles away from the river.
Here’s a picture of my son fishing in the Tittabawassee in April. See, not too big, right?
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Well, that evening with perfectly sunny skies and beautiful spring weather, our phones started going crazy with that super loud alert notice. And when we read the message, we were all like, “What?! We have to evacuate our home because of an imminent flood?”
The Edenville Dam that holds back Wixom Lake to the north of Midland had collapsed and all the water from the lake was gushing down the Tittabawassee River toward Midland. To make matters worse, another lake and dam were in the path of all this water in Sanford. Because of the pressure of too much water, the Sandford Dam was compromised and leaking, with the potential to burst.

All that to say, Midland was only hours away from being flooded by the water from at least one lake, possibly two. And our house was in the area of Midland that experts determined could face flooding. Did I mention that we’re over TWO miles away from the river?
Shocked at the news, we frantically packed our bags and attempted to move as much as we could out of our basement. Friends quickly reached out to us and invited us (and our five cats) come stay with them.
As it turned out, the river ran down our street and came up to the curb. All the sewer drains filled with river water and poured in to people’s homes through their basements. Like everyone else in the area, our basement was full of river water (or lake water!), which destroyed carpet, walls, belongings, and appliances.
[image error]The water covering my street!

While we lost a great deal including our washing machine, dryer, and freezer, believe it or not, we were actually on the lower end of the damage scale. Many in our surrounding neighborhoods had their foundations collapse from all the water pressure. Others had water so high that it destroyed the flooring on the first level. Still others had it into their first floor. Whole houses unlivable. Some condemned, too unsafe for their owners to even return to salvage belongings.
Driving through our neighborhood in the days after the flooding was heart-wrenching. The enormous piles of flood-damaged stuff on the curbs was staggering. Even though the clean-up crews have been working from dawn until dusk removing the debris, the damage is still there both physically and emotionally.

As I consider the tragedy, I’m still very saddened. But as I live through the aftermath, I’ve been reading Ann Voskamp’s book, The Broken Way, which is all about how to live in a broken world. Here are a couple of quotes that have encouraged me:
“Jesus with his pierced side is always on the side of the broken. Jesus always moves into places moved with grief. Jesus always seeks out where the suffering is, and that’s where Jesus stays.”
“Wounds can be openings to the beauty in us. And our weaknesses can be a container for God’s glory . . . God does great things through the greatly wounded.”

How about YOU? How has 2020 been a hard year for you?