Driving in this stuff

I just read a news article about the National Weather Service trying to figure out why so many people don’t listen to meteorologists when, for example, they say there is a winter warning and people should stay in.

Are you kidding me? Do we really need research done on this? It’s because meteorologists don’t know! They’re wrong often because it’s the weather! They can make educated guesses but no one ever knows. How often has the picnic gotten rained on? Or the sun amazingly stayed out when you were expecting thunderstorms? And in Minnesota, if we heeded every weather warning, we’d never see the light of day. So, we throw our boots in the trunk and head out shopping or to the Wild game, even if we’re told there’s a good chance we’re in for seven inches of snow.

There are usually some pretty serious warnings in life as well. In fact, I’m pretty sure if there were life sirens, they would be constant (how awful! the little ticker on the bottom of the TV saying BEEP BEEP BEEP: ALL COUNTIES EVERYWHERE, TAKE COVER BECAUSE FEELINGS COULD POTENTIALLY GET HURT, AND THIS WARNING WON'T EVER EXPIRE). We know relationships are hard. We know loss cuts—deep. Words can leave scars. Moves are scary. Change is like...I don't know...a hail storm. But, we grab our umbrellas and we love. We put on our mittens and we try to forgive. We put sunscreen on and show compassion. We keep going.

And as we do this, God’s the weather. We know certain things, and we can make some predictions on the basis of these things. He loves. He is good. But there’s so much we just don’t know. That seven-day forecast is a joke! Some days the sun is shining so brightly... and it really shouldn’t be. And other days the lightning strikes without warning. But we hop in the car and go because if we didn’t, we’d miss out on a concert, time with friends, a good meal.

The news article I read said that Minnesota’s incoming winter weather leaves us all wondering: how the heck do you drive in this stuff? Well, yes. That’s a great question, but I think the key is that you drive, period.