"And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself."
What happened the morning Jesus was raised from the dead? It was not in daylight because Mary Magdelene saw the stone rolled away "while it was still dark." Something happened in that dark tomb. Now let us be clear that Jesus didn't just "appear" alive. It is clear that by the power of God (the Father) Jesus was raised from the dead. Perhaps there were angels (messengers or servants really) who removed his cloths. Perhaps they brought some clothing. But He didn't just "get up" without doing something inside the cave. His face cloth was not lying with the linens. It was "rolled up." I do not understand why that is in the Bible but it must mean something. Perhaps it is to state the despite the miraculous (and I firmly, without a doubt, believe this miracle) that the earthly events still must take place. As long as we are on this earth, there are things that happen in this world. The cloth was rolled up, the stone was moved, Jesus was dressed in clothing, which was apparently clothing that a gardener would wear. These all tell me that the everyday work of earthly existence co-exists with the miraculous work of God.
God brings me to life, in ways I do not know or understand. I am unaware of the process of how I am brought to life, of how God attends to my earthly needs. But I know that I am alive and it was He who did it. And now the mundane things of life are things that I must partake in.
There is nothing amazing in this blog. And maybe that is because I am not feeling completely alive. And maybe I am still in the cave and it is still dark outside. In my life, maybe this is just the moment that I am first made alive. I am not aware of what is happening in the cave but maybe the first thing I need to do is roll up the cloth that has covered my face.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Dreading Saturday
Most people love Saturday. Its stuck between Friday (still a work day) and Sunday (a day to recover.) If asked a thousand people if Saturday should be longer, I would guess a thousand of them would say yes.
But I hate Saturdays.
Yesterday we celebrated Good Friday, a day we we remember the Passion (suffering) of Jesus who died on the cross. Tomorrow, we celebrate Easter, the day where Jesus was raised by God from the grave. To celebrate the fact that life has conquered death. But what about Saturday?
Imagine the actual Saturday between the day Jesus died and the Resurrection. What was going through his disciples' minds? Now I have heard preachers preach that when we go through times of trouble (Friday) we need to remember SUNDAY'S COMING! But we know the end of the story. The disciples did not know what was happening nor what was coming. To them Friday meant death - death of their friend, their teacher, their Lord. There was no getting around it. There was no hope, no vision of the things to come. Just despair, confusion, anxiety and fear. That Saturday must have been the longest Saturday in history.
If I am truthful, I am living in Saturday. When I talk of things that cause pain and death and suffering (see yesterday's post) I live in Saturday. I feel despair because I do not see how this pain could end. I feel confusion because I do not know how to navigate through the day. I feel anxiety because things are not going as I would like them to go. I feel fear because I do not believe this death I experience will ever be turned back into life. It seems as though my Saturday has been lasting a real long time. I don't know that Sunday is coming. In fact, I feel that Sunday will never come. But that is my lack of faith because I have experienced Sundays in my life before. And I forget. There have been dark times and I have been brought out through them. There have been struggles I thought would never end but they did. And the disciples thought that Jesus was lost to them forever. But He rose back to life. He gave to them a new life as well.
Think of the change in Jesus' followers. On Saturday, they were locked in a room of despair. But on Sunday, they were changed and empowered to change the world. So if you are in Saturday (like me) then I suggest we stick together. Imagine together a life of fullness that might await. Believing in a new life coming is not fantasy. It is a promise made by One who knows what was meant to be. It is made by One who has the power to change the present. It is made by one who knows the pain of Friday, the silence of Saturday and the joy of Sunday yet to come. Let's remind each other of the hope we await.
But I hate Saturdays.
Yesterday we celebrated Good Friday, a day we we remember the Passion (suffering) of Jesus who died on the cross. Tomorrow, we celebrate Easter, the day where Jesus was raised by God from the grave. To celebrate the fact that life has conquered death. But what about Saturday?
Imagine the actual Saturday between the day Jesus died and the Resurrection. What was going through his disciples' minds? Now I have heard preachers preach that when we go through times of trouble (Friday) we need to remember SUNDAY'S COMING! But we know the end of the story. The disciples did not know what was happening nor what was coming. To them Friday meant death - death of their friend, their teacher, their Lord. There was no getting around it. There was no hope, no vision of the things to come. Just despair, confusion, anxiety and fear. That Saturday must have been the longest Saturday in history.
If I am truthful, I am living in Saturday. When I talk of things that cause pain and death and suffering (see yesterday's post) I live in Saturday. I feel despair because I do not see how this pain could end. I feel confusion because I do not know how to navigate through the day. I feel anxiety because things are not going as I would like them to go. I feel fear because I do not believe this death I experience will ever be turned back into life. It seems as though my Saturday has been lasting a real long time. I don't know that Sunday is coming. In fact, I feel that Sunday will never come. But that is my lack of faith because I have experienced Sundays in my life before. And I forget. There have been dark times and I have been brought out through them. There have been struggles I thought would never end but they did. And the disciples thought that Jesus was lost to them forever. But He rose back to life. He gave to them a new life as well.
Think of the change in Jesus' followers. On Saturday, they were locked in a room of despair. But on Sunday, they were changed and empowered to change the world. So if you are in Saturday (like me) then I suggest we stick together. Imagine together a life of fullness that might await. Believing in a new life coming is not fantasy. It is a promise made by One who knows what was meant to be. It is made by One who has the power to change the present. It is made by one who knows the pain of Friday, the silence of Saturday and the joy of Sunday yet to come. Let's remind each other of the hope we await.
Friday, April 6, 2012
War Horse
I saw the movie Warhorse a few months ago. There were some beautiful scenes in the movie but I was not a big fan of the story line. There was one very powerful scene that moved the audience to tears however and that was when the Warhorse found himself in the front lines between the Allied forces and the Axis forces. This beautiful and strong creature ran into the barbed wire fences that separated the two enemy sides. The barbs chewed into the horse's flesh and sinew. The more the horse felt the pain and panic of being trapped, the more he ran. And the more he struggled, the more the barbed wire trapped him in the middle of dangerous territory.
It wasn't till yesterday, that I realized how much like the Warhorse I am.
No matter how strong or able I might be, I have run into dangerous territory and became entangled in life-threatening barbs. And the more I struggled to get free, the more barbs ran into my flesh and held me captive. Sometimes I do not know how I got so far into such a dangerous location and cannot believe I kept running, trusting on my own strength to carry me through. I do know a few things.
First, I am helpless to get out by myself. I have not the ability to cut these wires. I am hopelessly ensnared.
Second, I am bleeding and in great pain. And since I cannot get out alone, my own demise is soon to occur. And I am not only in pain, but there is no way to get out without more pain. Pain is inevitable.
Third, there is hope. Because the God who created me has not abandoned me. Even in enemy territory the Warhorse was set free as men from both sides of the front lines took pity on the creature and came to cut him free. Removing the barbed wire from the frightened horse caused some of the barbs further into the horses muscles. The pain was excruciating but it did not kill him. With the patience and skill of others, the horse was set free little by little. And with each barb removed from the horse, the pain lessened. The Warhorse calmed down and quit struggling against the pain. Instead, the horse endured it until it was free.
My pain can be great but there is no escaping the pain. I have run too deep into that field. God has sent rescuers to help remove the barbs. It will take time. It will be painful at times. But with each cut of the wire, I am one step closer to being free. The scars will eventually heal. Pain will endure until I die but I will not die from this excursion into dangerous territory. In fact, I will not die at all, but live.
Because 2000 years ago, my Rescuer was caught by barbs and thorns and nails that trapped him without hope Himself. He endured the pain, and His Father removed the this Great Warhorse from the snares of sin and restored Him to new life. His scars remain, and He remembers the pain. But He who endured the pain and went through dangerous territory is now the One who will come to our aid.
It wasn't till yesterday, that I realized how much like the Warhorse I am.
No matter how strong or able I might be, I have run into dangerous territory and became entangled in life-threatening barbs. And the more I struggled to get free, the more barbs ran into my flesh and held me captive. Sometimes I do not know how I got so far into such a dangerous location and cannot believe I kept running, trusting on my own strength to carry me through. I do know a few things.
First, I am helpless to get out by myself. I have not the ability to cut these wires. I am hopelessly ensnared.
Second, I am bleeding and in great pain. And since I cannot get out alone, my own demise is soon to occur. And I am not only in pain, but there is no way to get out without more pain. Pain is inevitable.
Third, there is hope. Because the God who created me has not abandoned me. Even in enemy territory the Warhorse was set free as men from both sides of the front lines took pity on the creature and came to cut him free. Removing the barbed wire from the frightened horse caused some of the barbs further into the horses muscles. The pain was excruciating but it did not kill him. With the patience and skill of others, the horse was set free little by little. And with each barb removed from the horse, the pain lessened. The Warhorse calmed down and quit struggling against the pain. Instead, the horse endured it until it was free.
My pain can be great but there is no escaping the pain. I have run too deep into that field. God has sent rescuers to help remove the barbs. It will take time. It will be painful at times. But with each cut of the wire, I am one step closer to being free. The scars will eventually heal. Pain will endure until I die but I will not die from this excursion into dangerous territory. In fact, I will not die at all, but live.
Because 2000 years ago, my Rescuer was caught by barbs and thorns and nails that trapped him without hope Himself. He endured the pain, and His Father removed the this Great Warhorse from the snares of sin and restored Him to new life. His scars remain, and He remembers the pain. But He who endured the pain and went through dangerous territory is now the One who will come to our aid.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Awaiting the new chase year
It has been a busy and cold spring. We have upgraded our web site (http://weather.cod.edu) which has some amazing new uses. It has taken a lot of time but I think it is worth it. Unfortunately, I have not thought about chasing around here.
Tornadoes have been abundant this April. Such an extreme amount of cold weather across the northern half of the US with slightly above normal temps across the south - severe weather is only to be expected.
Progressive waves should continue. And so as we set out next Friday, I am looking forward to enough severe weather events to keep all of us COD stormchasers happy.
Tornadoes have been abundant this April. Such an extreme amount of cold weather across the northern half of the US with slightly above normal temps across the south - severe weather is only to be expected.
Progressive waves should continue. And so as we set out next Friday, I am looking forward to enough severe weather events to keep all of us COD stormchasers happy.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Chase 1 Ends...good and bad
Well, the good news is that no one is hurt and was saw a tornado. The bad news is we lost our roof rack after driving into a downed power line.
We had been driving back to stay with the storm, nothing major just trying to get back to where the supercell was. We turned a curve and we say the lines hanging across the road a few feet above the ground. Ryan tried to stop and avoid the wires but it was not possible. The wires hit
across our windshield and moved up across the windows. No problems until it hit and caught the rack. We carried the wires for a while until it knocked everything off the roof. We were afraid there might have been live wires and were afraid at first to get out of the van. Van 2 pulled up and shown the lights, saw that we had pulled away from the wires and had lost the rack.
Laura determined that the wires were not live any more (along with a few cops who came on scene) and they moved the wires off the rack. They had come unraveled and it was pretty cool.
We lost the wires from all the antennas and the sleeve on the fiberglass roof had come undone. Luckily for us, Nichole and Amy had been chasing nearby and came to our aid. We were able to salvage most of the stuff into the back of Nichole's truck. We left behind some of the black conduit figuring it was easy enough to replace them. We left the scene and found a different hotel room in Jonesboro. Lots of little things to do but that is the basic story. All are well and the van has minimal damage. Our rack, well...that will require some serious work.
Oh...and we saw a nighttime tornado. That was cool. Tough day. More later.
Paul
We had been driving back to stay with the storm, nothing major just trying to get back to where the supercell was. We turned a curve and we say the lines hanging across the road a few feet above the ground. Ryan tried to stop and avoid the wires but it was not possible. The wires hit
across our windshield and moved up across the windows. No problems until it hit and caught the rack. We carried the wires for a while until it knocked everything off the roof. We were afraid there might have been live wires and were afraid at first to get out of the van. Van 2 pulled up and shown the lights, saw that we had pulled away from the wires and had lost the rack.
Laura determined that the wires were not live any more (along with a few cops who came on scene) and they moved the wires off the rack. They had come unraveled and it was pretty cool.
We lost the wires from all the antennas and the sleeve on the fiberglass roof had come undone. Luckily for us, Nichole and Amy had been chasing nearby and came to our aid. We were able to salvage most of the stuff into the back of Nichole's truck. We left behind some of the black conduit figuring it was easy enough to replace them. We left the scene and found a different hotel room in Jonesboro. Lots of little things to do but that is the basic story. All are well and the van has minimal damage. Our rack, well...that will require some serious work.
Oh...and we saw a nighttime tornado. That was cool. Tough day. More later.
Paul
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Chase One Finally going chasing
After a depressing start to our trip we are starting a chase today. We left last Thursday and chased Friday but were met by a letdown of storms unable to fire in southeastern NE.Saturday was a cold mess with the only good storms racing through Mississippi in areas almost impossible to chase. I never have chased in MS and may never end up there by choice.
Anyway, today's forecast looks like this. Let's hope I can update this blog many times this year with good summaries of successful chases.
I love it when the models start to follow my analysis. I was not sure of the problem with the CA soundings last night and whether or not the 00Z run was affected by that. I was surprised at the extent of the low to the north. This morning’s run seemed better with the low and attendant triple point further south. We did a lot of analysis last night and this morning and saw the development of a greater CIN layer that moved from SW KS to SE NE this morning. In its wake, lower mid-level lapse rates and weaker capping are also present. Cooler mid-level air looks to advect in and thus the model eradicates CIN by 00Z. Additional forcing is possible with as the SE CO low moves east and deepens slightly in association with jet diffluence. As Rich pointed out subtle shortwave INVOF four corners region may affect parts of the southern and central plains by later this PM.
I believe storms are most likely to initiate in the SLN-HUT-GBD area. It would be nice to have 84/61 and that is what we are hoping for initially. Modified DDC sounding indicates no cap left at those readings. The WRF does not have a tight moisture gradient as expected and we are hoping that those values can make it to region of greatest low-level convergence. Storm motion may be along quasi-stationary front and tornado-potential looks to be enhanced if not undercut too rapidly given relatively high LCL’s.
I would think other storms are possible down the dry line toward the OK border given 60 dews. Currently we are watching for the 63 dews to advect north and slightly west across north TX.
After a long week of nothing, we are hoping for daytime convection. We will also be happy with good lightning tonight!
Anyway, today's forecast looks like this. Let's hope I can update this blog many times this year with good summaries of successful chases.
I love it when the models start to follow my analysis. I was not sure of the problem with the CA soundings last night and whether or not the 00Z run was affected by that. I was surprised at the extent of the low to the north. This morning’s run seemed better with the low and attendant triple point further south. We did a lot of analysis last night and this morning and saw the development of a greater CIN layer that moved from SW KS to SE NE this morning. In its wake, lower mid-level lapse rates and weaker capping are also present. Cooler mid-level air looks to advect in and thus the model eradicates CIN by 00Z. Additional forcing is possible with as the SE CO low moves east and deepens slightly in association with jet diffluence. As Rich pointed out subtle shortwave INVOF four corners region may affect parts of the southern and central plains by later this PM.
I believe storms are most likely to initiate in the SLN-HUT-GBD area. It would be nice to have 84/61 and that is what we are hoping for initially. Modified DDC sounding indicates no cap left at those readings. The WRF does not have a tight moisture gradient as expected and we are hoping that those values can make it to region of greatest low-level convergence. Storm motion may be along quasi-stationary front and tornado-potential looks to be enhanced if not undercut too rapidly given relatively high LCL’s.
I would think other storms are possible down the dry line toward the OK border given 60 dews. Currently we are watching for the 63 dews to advect north and slightly west across north TX.
After a long week of nothing, we are hoping for daytime convection. We will also be happy with good lightning tonight!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Nebraska in July
8 Hours on one storm. Pretty amazing day despite no tornado.
Started in Newcastle and decided to follow the incipient storms north of the Black Hills. Had to cut through the Hills which are beautiful but slow! Finally caught the southern supercell west of Philip SD. The storm had strong rotation but a lot of dry air in the RFD and only once looked like it might spin out a quick tornado 18 miles west of Kadoka SD.
We followed the storm south and east and had various reports on Spotternet. Despite the good environment just to its southeast it never got rooted in the BL. A few occlusions with not strongly buoyant air and tornadoes would not occur.
The storm continued to have an elevated appearance until a little later when it suddenly changed its look to a more traditional supercell base. Even still, the storm had a problem not becoming outflow dominant. The low-level rotation never tightened up at all despite some nice vortex arch bookend couplets.
As the storm approached Rosebud a tor report was announced. We were close but never saw anything that looked suspicious. The storm looked more HP-ish at the time and rain may have obscured our view. But then the inflow started to pick up. A few times near the border, travel was impossible with almost due easterly inflow jets picking up dust and reducing visibility to zero. Inflow winds were measured from 35-40 kts but were estimated to be higher with possible gusts to 50. A wrong turn as a storm merger happened led us down the wrong way. We found a way back to Rt 83 through a back road and were treated to a massive and awe-inspiring beast of a storm.
Inflow winds were howling and lightning was frequent. With large hail repots from Valentine we didnt want to mess with it.
We saw the RFD start to surge so we headed south out of its fury while a few other chasers got munched by the RFD bite. We are headed to GRI to see what tomorrow holds. An excellent day and a great storm.
Paul
Started in Newcastle and decided to follow the incipient storms north of the Black Hills. Had to cut through the Hills which are beautiful but slow! Finally caught the southern supercell west of Philip SD. The storm had strong rotation but a lot of dry air in the RFD and only once looked like it might spin out a quick tornado 18 miles west of Kadoka SD.
We followed the storm south and east and had various reports on Spotternet. Despite the good environment just to its southeast it never got rooted in the BL. A few occlusions with not strongly buoyant air and tornadoes would not occur.
The storm continued to have an elevated appearance until a little later when it suddenly changed its look to a more traditional supercell base. Even still, the storm had a problem not becoming outflow dominant. The low-level rotation never tightened up at all despite some nice vortex arch bookend couplets.
As the storm approached Rosebud a tor report was announced. We were close but never saw anything that looked suspicious. The storm looked more HP-ish at the time and rain may have obscured our view. But then the inflow started to pick up. A few times near the border, travel was impossible with almost due easterly inflow jets picking up dust and reducing visibility to zero. Inflow winds were measured from 35-40 kts but were estimated to be higher with possible gusts to 50. A wrong turn as a storm merger happened led us down the wrong way. We found a way back to Rt 83 through a back road and were treated to a massive and awe-inspiring beast of a storm.
Inflow winds were howling and lightning was frequent. With large hail repots from Valentine we didnt want to mess with it.
We saw the RFD start to surge so we headed south out of its fury while a few other chasers got munched by the RFD bite. We are headed to GRI to see what tomorrow holds. An excellent day and a great storm.Paul
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