COLUMN: Don’t Mind the Mess – Peace in the eye of the storm

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/06/2022 (1061 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tornadoes have always fascinated me. Their sheer strength just blows me away – pun intended. But the most interesting thing about them is their moody, unpredictable nature. How they seemingly appear out of nowhere, and then ruthlessly pluck one tree up by its roots and then gently pass by the one nearby. It makes the whole thing seem strangely personal.

What determines its path? What makes it decide to reduce one house to a pile of toothpicks and leave another untouched? It’s just a mass of swirling wind and yet, it seems to ponder its next move.

If you saw a huge funnel cloud in your path right now, would you stand and watch it in silent awe, or would you run for your life? I think most of us would do the latter. That’s probably the most sensible, smart thing to do.

But when those big angry clouds gather and roll in the sky, you’ll generally find me driving toward them instead of away from them. I’ve always wanted to see a real tornado. Not the cheesy Hollywood version with a farmer’s cow and tractor flying by, followed by Dorothy and Toto.

If I ever encountered one of these giant funnels, would I run for shelter or would I pause transfixed and linger long enough to catch some good video? I’m really not sure. I’m always brave in my imagination.

I’ve often wondered what it would be like in the eye of the storm. To be caught right in the middle of all that ferocious energy and remain untouched. Would you have some kind of spiritual revelation while you hovered inside that funnel? Would God become more real than He’s ever been before?

There have only been two people on record who have been caught in the eye of a tornado and lived to tell about it.

The first was a Kansas farmer named Will Keller. On a hot day in June 1928, he was with his family, checking out the damage to his wheat crop from a hailstorm that had just passed. After spotting the umbrella-shaped cloud, he rushed his family to their storm cellar, but he couldn’t resist going back out for another look. The next thing he knew, he was spinning inside that dark, swirling cloud. Later, he said everything was “as still as death”. Then the tornado simply passed, skipping his house, but smashing the home of his neighbour.

The second incident happened to a Texas farmer named Roy Hall in 1951. When he saw the twister approaching, he told his wife and kids to go hide under the bed, but he was frozen in fascination. Then he heard a loud rumbling and was caught up inside the rotating beast. After that – complete silence. He described what he saw as a smooth wall of clouds. Non-stop lightning created a bluish light that allowed him to see clearly within the funnel. And suddenly, the tornado passed, the sky turned sunny, and Roy and his family found themselves safe and unscathed on their devastated property. The same storm killed 100 people, but Roy and his family survived.

Life, in many ways, can be like these huge storm systems. It too, seems selective in who it tears apart, and who remains untouched. Sometimes it seems downright unfair the ways some folks just seem to breeze through, while others seem to run into one tempest after another.

When we get caught up in our personal cyclones, it’s important to remember that peace can still be found, even in the eye of the storm. Like some crazy storm chaser, it’s possible to become the observer of all the turmoil around us and wait for the clouds to pass. Eventually, even tornadoes run out of steam.