By John Kubicek
There could have been many stories that would make it to the top of the list for TOP NEWS STORIES FOR 2008. In this case, I'm going to tell you about the top story that directly touched my life, in many ways. And this is a story that really needs to spread across the land. We are all facing a coming crisis that may still be beyond our imagination.
In 2008, and even carrying over from 2007, Iowa had experienced a very brutal winter. Across this great state, many Iowans fell on their knees and prayed, and we had the support of many people across this great land. We've had to endure many hardships.
Despite the great adversities of last winter, we persevered. Iowans are resilient, as are most of the people across this great nation.
Being that this is my "Top Story of 2008," I wanted to make this a good one. That is why for the next few minutes, I'll just let the following videos speak for me:
Maybe the reason for sharing this story today is that we are all facing our storms. We now need to decide where we want to go. In the last video, there was Ashton Kutcher, a good ol' Iowa native. He decided to do what he could to help in his home state. I respect that. Really, I greatly do respect that. They DO make 'm good in Iowa. Joining in the effort to help out Iowans was another Iowa native, Shawn Johnson, an Olympic gymnast.
And better yet, there are efforts going on that you will probably never see in the news. We'll continue to talk about those efforts in the future.
There is a point to remember here. Consider what had happened here in Iowa as an example. As we face further tribulations - personal or nationwide - let's remember that we can all be here for each other. Let's be September 12th people, folks.
Showing posts with label flood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flood. Show all posts
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
In Biblical Proportions, Part II
By John Kubicek
It all came down on me while driving home from work this morning. It hit me on the side of the head. It slapped me in the face. It made tears stream down my face.
Of course, I'm talking about what happened here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, just a week ago. Lives had been ripped apart. Hopes and dreams were vaporized in just a matter of days, if not hours.
But, what was really ripping me apart was much more than getting a first hand glimpse of the aftermath of the carnage suffered in Cedar Rapids just a week ago. You see, not only did I have a quick glimpse of the piles of debris lined up along the streets, but I also saw, while going on with life in the last few days, that people are pulling together.
Keep in mind, it wasn't until yesterday (June 19) that President Bush finally got to visit our area of the country. And before I continue, let me allow you to see it for yourselves:
I can assure you, right off the bat, that the President's visit had nothing to do with the hope and unity that I've seen over the last week! In fact, while of course people will need all the assistance that they can get, it was much more than that. In the video you saw above, it was about the government helping us out, and about the losses that we've suffered. But what I want to say today differs greatly. It is about us helping each other out, and about what we will gain from this experience!
One of the Presidential candidates this year has been spouting change, unity, and hope. All good things, except, when we really look closer, we already have it. Yes, there has been drastic changes in people's lives around this area. For many, things will never be the same. But, while that was happening, I found out something else. There has been a lot of unity in this community. People have been helping each other out, in what ever way we can. For some it was filling sandbags, and for others, providing moral encouragement, shelter, food, what ever it takes.
So, if there was ever hope.... This is IT! Yes, I had tears in my eyes on the way home from work today. It was for both the people that suffered, and for the realization of all the good that I saw people do for each other! Not one iota of any of it had anything to do with a "Presidential Visit" to this area. Not that I minded the President coming, it was probably a good thing, to maybe give a few more people a little more assurance that things will work out.
But, the true positive perspective I had on the journey home today was overwhelming. While we will find much sorrow in our lives, it really is also up to us to find ways to make the bad things in life become the catalysts to better things in our lives.
For many of us, it may have been just finding the Faith that we may not have had for awhile.
For many of us, it may have been seeing that there are people out there that really care about us, and that isn't meaning the government officials, but neighbors, parents, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, or our church families.
For many of us, it may have been just knowing that God was helping us to get through this nightmare. It may have been the realization of how important the Lord Jesus Christ is in our lives!
While we have each other, and God, we really won't ever lose! That's the change, unity and hope that I'm talking about! In Biblical Proportions!
Related stories:
In Biblical Proportions
It all came down on me while driving home from work this morning. It hit me on the side of the head. It slapped me in the face. It made tears stream down my face.
Of course, I'm talking about what happened here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, just a week ago. Lives had been ripped apart. Hopes and dreams were vaporized in just a matter of days, if not hours.
But, what was really ripping me apart was much more than getting a first hand glimpse of the aftermath of the carnage suffered in Cedar Rapids just a week ago. You see, not only did I have a quick glimpse of the piles of debris lined up along the streets, but I also saw, while going on with life in the last few days, that people are pulling together.
Keep in mind, it wasn't until yesterday (June 19) that President Bush finally got to visit our area of the country. And before I continue, let me allow you to see it for yourselves:
I can assure you, right off the bat, that the President's visit had nothing to do with the hope and unity that I've seen over the last week! In fact, while of course people will need all the assistance that they can get, it was much more than that. In the video you saw above, it was about the government helping us out, and about the losses that we've suffered. But what I want to say today differs greatly. It is about us helping each other out, and about what we will gain from this experience!
One of the Presidential candidates this year has been spouting change, unity, and hope. All good things, except, when we really look closer, we already have it. Yes, there has been drastic changes in people's lives around this area. For many, things will never be the same. But, while that was happening, I found out something else. There has been a lot of unity in this community. People have been helping each other out, in what ever way we can. For some it was filling sandbags, and for others, providing moral encouragement, shelter, food, what ever it takes.
So, if there was ever hope.... This is IT! Yes, I had tears in my eyes on the way home from work today. It was for both the people that suffered, and for the realization of all the good that I saw people do for each other! Not one iota of any of it had anything to do with a "Presidential Visit" to this area. Not that I minded the President coming, it was probably a good thing, to maybe give a few more people a little more assurance that things will work out.
But, the true positive perspective I had on the journey home today was overwhelming. While we will find much sorrow in our lives, it really is also up to us to find ways to make the bad things in life become the catalysts to better things in our lives.
For many of us, it may have been just finding the Faith that we may not have had for awhile.
For many of us, it may have been seeing that there are people out there that really care about us, and that isn't meaning the government officials, but neighbors, parents, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, or our church families.
For many of us, it may have been just knowing that God was helping us to get through this nightmare. It may have been the realization of how important the Lord Jesus Christ is in our lives!
While we have each other, and God, we really won't ever lose! That's the change, unity and hope that I'm talking about! In Biblical Proportions!
Related stories:
In Biblical Proportions
Thursday, June 12, 2008
In Biblical Proportions
By John Kubicek
Live, from Ground Zero in the News today.....
The doom and gloom abounds. Everyone here in Cedar Rapids has been affected in someway through this terrific tsunami of tragedy. Everywhere you look, there is water, including some in my very own basement floor from a window that could no longer hold back the deluge.
The only thing getting me through the moment, and that's having a chance of seeing some of the Cubs-Braves game. I'd be in bed long ago, but my electricity had gone out. And then I heard they closed the Interstate, the only way over the Cedar River.... And then I heard it was open.... And then I tried to call my daughter, only to go directly to her voicemail..... (Don't worry, she is okay!)
Isn't is strange what I saw I had in my Profile? I say I am from "Iowa (....or is this Heaven)". Welll, right now, many people in Iowa want to say, "Is this Hell?" Tornadoes of gargantuan strength (Parkersburg, F-5, the Boy Scout camp tornado that killed 4 campers in Western Iowa), horrible floods... Oh, how good it is that we aren't in the terrible throes of Winter we just went through..... (/sarcasm).
What I wrote above would be how the lame stream media would handle this story. But there is a much better story that needs to come out.
If there was EVER a time..... A GREAT time, for me to have begun posting that 40 Days of Purpose series, it was now. Not because I want any glory - I don't - because it really does all belong to the Lord... But, 40 Days? Like the 40 Days of Rain for Noah and his clan? Like the 40 Days Jesus spent here after His Resurrection before He went into the clouds?
It wasn't an accident, it wasn't coincidence that I had started sending out the 40 Days of Purpose series... maybe it was just to help me keep my sanity. But now, I realize a much bigger purpose, something that I had never thought could happen.
There may have been a time when I first started writing this today, that I may have told you what a massive repurcussion this would have on America. I could see the ripple effects, knowing that crops have been impacted, not just here in Iowa, but all over the Midwest. We all know that is happening.
But then, while waiting for youtube.com to get the above video uploaded, I had a revelation. On WMT radio, there was an interview with a representative to the Iowa State legislature, I heard something very positive. It was about how people here in Cedar Rapids have done such a fantastic job of pulling together and cooperating. There have been no deaths, Praise the Lord, so far. That is the good news. Yet, we know, what we'll be facing in this historic tragedy in the aftermath, there are affects this will have throughout all of the economy of Cedar Rapids, and ripple through Iowa, and probably the nation.
But as New York City pulled out of the aftermath of 9/11, Cedar Rapids will pull out of the Flood of 2008. It will take time, and a lot of people are going to have very difficult times. And as the hope and care for each other rippled out of NYC and the Pentagon area in 2001, it is my prayer that the hope and perseverence and the resilience of the good old Cedar Rapidians will ripple out of this area, to touch the nation. We will see.
Live, from Ground Zero in the News today.....
The doom and gloom abounds. Everyone here in Cedar Rapids has been affected in someway through this terrific tsunami of tragedy. Everywhere you look, there is water, including some in my very own basement floor from a window that could no longer hold back the deluge.
The only thing getting me through the moment, and that's having a chance of seeing some of the Cubs-Braves game. I'd be in bed long ago, but my electricity had gone out. And then I heard they closed the Interstate, the only way over the Cedar River.... And then I heard it was open.... And then I tried to call my daughter, only to go directly to her voicemail..... (Don't worry, she is okay!)
Isn't is strange what I saw I had in my Profile? I say I am from "Iowa (....or is this Heaven)". Welll, right now, many people in Iowa want to say, "Is this Hell?" Tornadoes of gargantuan strength (Parkersburg, F-5, the Boy Scout camp tornado that killed 4 campers in Western Iowa), horrible floods... Oh, how good it is that we aren't in the terrible throes of Winter we just went through..... (/sarcasm).
What I wrote above would be how the lame stream media would handle this story. But there is a much better story that needs to come out.
If there was EVER a time..... A GREAT time, for me to have begun posting that 40 Days of Purpose series, it was now. Not because I want any glory - I don't - because it really does all belong to the Lord... But, 40 Days? Like the 40 Days of Rain for Noah and his clan? Like the 40 Days Jesus spent here after His Resurrection before He went into the clouds?
It wasn't an accident, it wasn't coincidence that I had started sending out the 40 Days of Purpose series... maybe it was just to help me keep my sanity. But now, I realize a much bigger purpose, something that I had never thought could happen.
There may have been a time when I first started writing this today, that I may have told you what a massive repurcussion this would have on America. I could see the ripple effects, knowing that crops have been impacted, not just here in Iowa, but all over the Midwest. We all know that is happening.
But then, while waiting for youtube.com to get the above video uploaded, I had a revelation. On WMT radio, there was an interview with a representative to the Iowa State legislature, I heard something very positive. It was about how people here in Cedar Rapids have done such a fantastic job of pulling together and cooperating. There have been no deaths, Praise the Lord, so far. That is the good news. Yet, we know, what we'll be facing in this historic tragedy in the aftermath, there are affects this will have throughout all of the economy of Cedar Rapids, and ripple through Iowa, and probably the nation.
But as New York City pulled out of the aftermath of 9/11, Cedar Rapids will pull out of the Flood of 2008. It will take time, and a lot of people are going to have very difficult times. And as the hope and care for each other rippled out of NYC and the Pentagon area in 2001, it is my prayer that the hope and perseverence and the resilience of the good old Cedar Rapidians will ripple out of this area, to touch the nation. We will see.
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