How to Escape the Catastrophe Lot

Piles of debris from hurricane Harvey have been collecting in a fenced staging area a few miles from my house. One pile has tree trunks and limbs waiting to become mulch. Another has a mountain of large kitchen appliances awaiting metal recycling. The third heap is piled high with furniture, clothes, toys, books, sheetrock, and flooring. Stuff that had value before it soaked in muddy water.

A few miles away from this sad landscape is another staging area. Before Harvey, it was a lot for towed cars. Now a sign describes a new purpose, “Catastrophe Lot.” A fraction of the flooded cars across our city came to this lot, parked in neat rows like tiny matchbox cars.

‘Catastrophe Lot’ – how would one write that definition? A place to store damaged goods? A place to go when value approaches zero? A place to wait and rust? A place to hang out with other losers? A place to hit bottom?

Sometimes life takes us to the catastrophe lot and says “Park here.”

The wrecker that drags our lives there comes in many forms. Illness, injury, death of loved ones, broken relationships, ruined careers, bankruptcy, bullying, abuse, loneliness, addiction, and disappointment.

When we find ourselves in the catastrophe lot, we can think it was a one way ticket in. Because life as we knew it has turned upside down. The situation is not reversible. It is too late to have made different decisions. We can feel stuck. Trapped behind a chain link fence with signs announcing to the world that we are no good. No longer valuable. Useless. A catastrophe.

But then we remember. We remember a God who can pick us up. Who can put us back together. Who can breathe life into us again.

We remember how “dem bones dem bones dem dry bones” were put back together in the valley of dry bones. The prophet, Ezekiel, recorded the illustration from God that inspired this old spiritual.

⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. [Ezekiel 37:4-10 NIV]

My friend, if you are in the middle of the catastrophe of your life right now, be still and know He is God. Soon you will begin to hear the rattling of bones coming together. A glimmer of hope. But wait a little more, because He also has tendons and skin to layer on to your bareness. And then at last, He will breathe life back into your spirit. You are not a catastrophe. Your situation is. And you will find your breathe again and will stand up and walk out of the catastrophe lot.