DAM IN DANGER OF FAILING
On July 16, as much as nine inches of rain fell in the morning hours in the area around Nashville, IL. This caused the Nashville City Reservoir to overflow. Emergency officials sent out a notice that the dam had failed or was on the verge of failing. This caused a panic among residents as two hundred homes were hurriedly evacuated. However, it turned out to be a poor choice of words, because the dam was holding strong. “There was not a catastrophic failure,” said Washington County spokesperson Alex Haglund. Flooding did occur and those homes did have to be evacuated, but all that had “failed” was a sandbar that had been built for just this situation. If the water hits a certain level, this sandbar is designed to collapse to relieve pressure on the dam itself. Everything worked as it should to prevent a disaster. “It was a terminology issue,” Haglund said, noting that during the crisis, “We realized that ‘failure’ was not the correct term for it.”
FAITH IN DANGER OF FAILING
When Paul was in Athens, word reached him that the church at Thessalonica had come under intense persecution from the local populace. He was quite concerned that their faith might collapse under the pressure. It finally reached the point where Paul couldn’t stand it any longer, so he dispatched Timothy to travel to the Thessalonians to see how he could strengthen their faith.
Questions
- When in your life did something seem to go wrong, but everything was actually perfectly fine?
- What’s the most amazing engineering feat you have seen?
- How might we strengthen our own faith in the Lord? How might we strengthen the faith of others?
