Are You 1 In 10?

I know there were many severely affected by Hurricane Irma. She was a monster of a storm.

But there were many prayers voicing requests of mercy and grace. “God, would you show yourself strong in the storm? Would You spare lives and lessen the impact?”

There were those who lost their lives. Families did lose their homes. Irma showed her ferocity.

But Irma tracked across the land of Florida and got out of the warm gulf waters. Because of this, my pastor friend in Tampa said they did not get hit as hard as forecast. Irma downgraded somewhat quickly over land. There were power outages and down trees in Georgia, but few, if any, tornadoes were spawned.

A local weather forecaster noted how he had never seen Atlanta under a tropical storm warning while a cold front wedge moved in simultaneously. This phenomenon of colder air kept the atmosphere stable enough to deter tornadoes.

In my little corner of the world called Marietta, we had wind and rain—but that was about it. We didn’t even lose power. For this I’m thankful.

Once, Jesus healed ten men with leprosy. Only one came back to thank Him later, and that unlikely man was a despised Samaritan. Only 1 in 10 was thankful.

I suppose there are those who will think nothing of Hurricane Irma’s zero effect on them. They will go back to work and press on without thought. I can imagine there will be some who will be shaking their fist at God asking the “why” of their devastation. I wonder out of every ten, how many will muster up a dose of gratitude.

Last night, we turned off all the lights and lit some candles as if we were in a Hurricane. We did a Bible study on the grateful prostitute of Luke 7. We were grateful as well. For during Hurricane Irma, we’d seen God answer prayers of grace and mercy.