Hurricane Irma, Leave My Friend Darryl Alone

Hurricane Irma is slamming into south Florida right now. At some point this week we've all seen it on the news, on Facebook, on Twitter, heard it on the radio, etc. The storm is bad, maybe the worst hurricane to ever hit Florida, certainly the worst any of us have seen in our lifetime.

The thing about hurricanes is, for the most part, you can see them coming. They can shift and move, get stronger or weaker, but for the most part, people have plenty of advance warning that they need to evacuate. For most of us in the country that don't live in a place like Florida, where Hurricanes are so frequent, we're like "Just get out of there. Why would you stay if you know it's going to be that bad?"

I know I was guilty of this just last week, with Hurricane Harvey down in Texas. Just get out. That's what I said. Why wouldn't people just leave? Then Hurricane Irma started it's slow march towards south Florida, a place I lived for a year, a place where people that I love and care about still live.

One of those people is my good friend, Darryl Robinson. When I lived down there, I was in a near fatal car wreck. I got hit by a drunk driver going over 100 mph. After five surgeries, I was in a wheelchair for a couple of months. I couldn't walk or drive, and I had no family to help take care of me for 1,000 miles. Literally.

God gave me a couple of angels, special people that took care of me, during the absolute worst time of my life. Darryl is certainly one of those angels. He came and picked me up for work every morning. He took me home after work every night. He took me to the doctor, waited with me while they X-Rayed me to see if I wasn't broken anymore. He took me to the grocery store. He took me to get a haircut. He took me to the mall to buy a pair of shoes when I was able to walk again. He took me to the airport the first time I flew back home. Just as important, he would come to my house and just sit and talk with me.

Darryl and I had a lot of long, long talks. To say that I love the guy is an understatement. He's like the long lost brother that I never knew I had.

So this week, while I was calling 5-6 people that I knew were right in the path of Hurricane Irma, Darryl was one of the first calls I made. After playing a little phone tag, I sent him a text that said, "Bro, get out of there. Where you headed to?"

When Darryl called me back, what he said didn't surprise me. Darryl is a man of tremendous faith. He told me that his sister, who he lives with, wasn't in good health and was actually in a wheelchair right now. So they were just going to ride it out. Darryl said, "David, you know I'm a believer, and I know that whatever is going to happen is going to happen. God is going to take care of us."

So back to my original point, "Why don't people just get out of there?" It's not that simple. One, everybody who wants to evacuate, they can't. They don't have a car or they don't have the money or they don't have a way to evacuate everybody in their family. Two, they've 'rode it out' through so many hurricanes that they're kind of conditioned to think that everything is going to be okay. Three, that's their home! So if they don't stay and take care of their home, what will they come back to?

I spent a lot of time this week praying for the people I love in Florida. I woke up this morning and watched the news, thinking about all of them. This storm is going to do unprecedented damage and turn people's lives upside down.

So today, I want you to say a prayer for Florida today. Say a prayer for my friend Darryl and his family and all the other people that I care about down there.

Thanks for reading. #JWT