Stronger Than Ever and Moving Forward

Days such as March 3, 2020 in Nashville are not ones we will reflect on delightfully in the future. But they help us keep our lives in perspective and help us remember what is important. As I write this post on Wednesday evening, March 4, over 28,000 customers of Nashville Electric Service are still without electricity. We mourn the loss of lives across Middle Tennessee. And many folks are dealing with the aggravation of displacement and the task of rebuilding what was blown away by what was a "3" on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale of tornado severity.

But this is not our first rodeo. Anyone remember the ice storm of 1994 that left scores of folks without power for weeks? I was a student at Lipscomb at that time. How about the tornadoes of April 1998 that ripped the three-star seal off of the Tennessee state flag at the Capitol and disrupted construction of what we now know as Nissan Stadium (I still think the NFL team should be known as the "Tornadoes")? The next January, Clarksville was ripped by a storm of its own. I was in and out of Middle Tennessee at the time as a law student in Memphis.

More recently, we experienced the May 2010 flood which took lives and knocked us from normality. Even though our area was not directly impacted by the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, I don't think anyone who was living in America at the time came away from the era the same as they entered it.

Times such as this remind us that we are mere humans. God and the nature he put into motion are powerful forces. Life is precious. In downtown Nashville, my wireless phone went bonkers at about 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday. The power at my studio penthouse went off for the first time in over 13 years. But this exhausted lawyer was sleeping comfortably. The state office building of the Tennessee Department of Human Services that is mere blocks away from my residence was decimated. A slight change in the course of the storm system may have meant injury or death for James A. Rose. As I awoke Tuesday morning and as my power returned, I realized what had happened and fell to one knee to thank and praise my heavenly Father for sparing my life.

Times such as this bring us together to accomplish good. Co-workers and acquaintances who pay only token attention to each other suddenly are brought together as neighbors and friends. People who rarely, if ever, pray start to do so.

Times such as this remind us that when circumstances call for it, we can do amazing things together as a community. And at a time when our nation is bitterly divided from a political standpoint, this is a good thing.

So let us move ceaselessly onward through this time of difficulty and rebuilding. And let us never forget who we are and Whose we are.

James A. Rose 

Publisher