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Overview
When the storms of life blow in unexpectedly, wreaking havoc and leaving a trail of destruction, why does one person fall apart while another perseveres and even finds a deeper sense of purpose afterward? In Beyond the Storm, Debra Morton reveals why, providing the techniques and strategies that helped her and many others not only survive but also thrive, even in the most painful of circumstances.
While ministering to victims of Hurricane Katrina and grieving the death of her granddaughter, Morton realized that the key to pushing forward in the midst of setbacks was having a defined set of coping skills. So she created the “Storm Playbook,” which teaches how to renew your hope, reclaim your passion, and experience fulfillment and joy again. That playbook is here for you to use immediately, along with interactive tools, journaling questions, and scripture studies that will guide you through pain and struggle and into strength and victory once again.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781400208333 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Nelson, Thomas, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 03/05/2019 |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Sales rank: | 626,858 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Life Before the Storm
Before we venture into the storm, I want to share a little more about me. I'm a native of New Orleans, where I graduated from high school. I had planned to go to UCLA to major in communications; my dad, however, insisted it was too far away. I was agitated at his disapproval, but I conceded and decided to enroll at the University of New Orleans. That fall, when I was about to begin my college classes, my future husband, a young man all the way from Canada, started attending my church. Weeks after joining our church, on a November morning around Thanksgiving, he shared the testimony of what God had done in his life and how he ended up in our city. In a nutshell, he had lost everything and felt as if God was specifically saying, "Get to New Orleans."
Like Jonah in the Bible, this young man was hesitant to follow the leading of the Lord. He thought, I don't even know anybody in New Orleans. But he realized that trying to rebel wasn't working. After all, someone had stolen his car with all his clothes and other belongings in it. He stated how extremely painful that was, because he had very little money to replace the things he had lost. He admitted that it shook his faith. So he stopped resisting and said, "Lord, I'm going." He took a Greyhound bus and made his way to New Orleans.
It seemed logical then that after relocating to New Orleans he would start attending the church nearest his new home, which was my church. He decided to become a member there. We know now it was divine destiny.
The older people were impressed with his testimony. All the older ladies were chattering, "He's such a fiery young man." Later, when I got home, even my granny said, "Oh, wasn't that a powerful testimony?" I smiled at her, but I laughed to myself, because I was busy in college and not interested in having a boyfriend.
Time passed, and about a month later, I sang a song at our preservice, where we held discipleship training. I had a huge Afro — keep in mind, it was the seventies — and when the service was over, that same young man came up to me and said, "That was a beautiful song. By the way, the Lord said you're going to be my wife." I was so taken aback that I started avoiding him whenever he was around. But he kept pursuing me, and eventually we became friends and started dating. After two years, he asked me to marry him.
That man, Paul S. Morton, turned out to be a phenomenal husband of forty-one years, a remarkable pastor, a wonderful singer, an exceptional preacher, and an excellent father. From that union, we had three children — two girls and a boy. We have had highs and lows, but all in all, we have created a great life in our many years together. People always ask us our secret to staying together for so long. We say God is the third person in our marriage. He makes the difference.
When we were first married I did not work in ministry, but we have now celebrated more than thirty years serving together, twenty-five of those years as pastor and co-pastor of Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church in its three locations. We are grateful that, while ministry is time consuming, we were able to build and enjoy a wonderful personal life with each other, our children, extended family, and friends. All this was life before the storm, Hurricane Katrina. Amazingly, after the storm we organized a new church, Changing a Generation Full Gospel Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and have been co-laborers in its growth for twelve years.
A year before Katrina, I also assisted my husband with another church he had planted in Arabi, Louisiana. It, too, was called Changing a Generation. A pastor was installed there but later was led to relocate. At that time, we already had seven weekly services among our three locations. As his co-pastor, I thought eight services would overload my husband, so I felt the need to step up and offer to lead the church in Arabi until another pastor was found. Within months my husband was led to install me as the senior pastor. It was scary and challenging, but also intriguing. Unfortunately, before a year had passed, Katrina hit and the church in Arabi was destroyed. We were saddened but realized as we began to reorganize in Atlanta that God had been preparing us for the new thing He was going to do — operate both independently yet interdependently in ministry. He was preparing and teaching us how to thrive after a storm, not just survive.
While serving at the new church in New Orleans as senior pastor, I was excited that God had blessed me with the surprising opportunity to help sustain and grow it. I was being developed in areas of leadership and decision making as well as being trained to be sensitive to God's voice. At the very start, I was given a word from God to schedule the worship service on Saturday rather than Sunday. I named it "Live at Five." The new church service change was fresh and fun but also wisdom from above, because it allowed me to continue to assist my husband with the other services at Greater St. Stephen.
Wisdom is the application of knowledge. The Bible says in Proverbs 4:7, "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding" (KJV). As I look back, it was definitely the Lord's leading for me to offer to help with the Arabi church; and although we did not rebuild the Arabi church, the experience of working there gave me the additional skill set I would need to help my husband rebuild the other locations in New Orleans and start the new ministry in Atlanta. I was given greater responsibility following Katrina as a co-pastor and in the new position of pastor in Atlanta. Dealing with the smaller challenges in Arabi gave me the ability (with God's help) to handle the larger congregation in New Orleans.
* * *
I still remember August 2005 like it was yesterday. We had just moved into our dream home, and our churches were thriving. The day before the storm I held my Saturday service in Arabi, Live at Five, right on schedule. One of our members had brought her entire family reunion to it. I stood around afterward exchanging hugs and conversation, but people kept coming up to me asking if I had heard about the storm. After the third person mentioned it, I left the church and decided to pick up some items from the grocery store before the storm hit.
I started to feel more urgency when I walked into the local convenience store and saw there was only one loaf of bread left on the shelf. I quickly grabbed it and headed to the counter, but before I could get out my wallet, the cashier informed me she couldn't sell it to me because she was holding it for the manager. People were becoming fearful, and some were even acting desperate as they got more information about the storm. After going back and forth for a bit, she finally gave in and let me buy the bread. Next, I stopped at a Chinese restaurant, and after I ordered my food, the cook in the kitchen appeared with a big pot of shrimp fried rice and told me I could take it all because they were shutting down for the night. I hurried home immediately. If the restaurant was giving away food, I thought to myself, This storm must be severe.
As soon as I walked in the door, my husband started giving me his own live weather report. At this point, I still did not understand the gravity of the storm that was approaching. New Orleans natives had adopted a culture of "riding out the storm" because during the past century, hurricanes had flooded New Orleans five times: in 1915, 1940, 1947, 1965, and 1969.1 But when I saw the look on my husband's face as he described the forecast, I realized I needed to stop teasing him for always being glued to CNN. In fact, this storm convinced me I need to pay more attention to the news channels.
Although it was clear to me that a hurricane was coming, I wanted to stay in our house on the second floor during the storm. My thinking was that our stucco home was only one year old and strong. I had survived former storms in older one-story wooden homes, so I thought certainly this house could protect us, but my husband had already decided what we would do. I might point out here that all storms aren't the same, which I will discuss later, and therefore each one may require "different movement."
Since the mayor had issued a mandatory evacuation and the airport was shutting down at noon the next day, my husband told me the details of the schedule for services the next morning and said that afterward we would fly out. New Orleans was in trouble because of its unusually high risk for flooding — the average elevation is about six feet below sea level, and the city is surrounded by water. Neighborhoods that sat below sea level, many of which housed New Orleans's poorest and most vulnerable people, were at significant risk of flooding. Officials worried that the surges could overtop some levees and cause short-term flooding, but no one predicted what would happen after Hurricane Katrina, when the levees collapsed. Thank God we left when we did; our home was in one of the areas that was hit the hardest.
Those few days, from Saturday morning through Monday evening, were a complete whirlwind. Saturday evening I immediately began making arrangements for my ailing mother, sister, and aunt, all of whom were my responsibility.
They were in medical facilities and in no condition to fly. I felt helpless. I contacted the facilities and a sitter to make arrangements for their care. Each facility assured me that their evacuation plans were already in progress; they would take them to a sister facility where they would be safe. My mind was racing with the what-ifs; however, at that moment, I had to place my trust in God and those administrators because there was nothing else I could do.
My husband, children — ages eighteen, twenty-four, and twenty-eight — along with my daughter's husband and two kids (a two-year-old and a nine-month-old), and I packed our essentials and went to bed. The next morning, which was Sunday, we got up, preached at our service in New Orleans East, and instructed our assistant pastors at our New Orleans uptown location to urge our church family to obey the mayor and evacuate. The service at our third location, located on the west bank of New Orleans, never happened because it was scheduled for 11:30 a.m., and evacuations were in full effect by then. We also followed the mayor's instructions and boarded a plane, heading east, because we had speaking engagements scheduled for that upcoming week, first in New Jersey and then in Oakland, California. The pilot became ill, though, so he diverted the flight to Memphis, where we slept in a hotel for a short time. When the pilot awakened us, he informed us that the storm was headed toward our exact location, so we evacuated again with our children and grandchildren.
After we finally arrived in New Jersey, our family started to relax, but while my husband was talking to us, he suddenly stopped. I waited for him to continue, and when he finally did, he asked me to call the church where he would be speaking to tell them he would not be coming. He put his head in his hands and whispered a soft prayer. While the children and I attempted to get him to tell us what was wrong, he handed us his phone. He had received a text from a family friend that contained a picture of our tallest, most significant church building in New Orleans East — it was entirely submerged by water except for the very top of the steeple. All our locations were damaged by the storm, but this one was hit the hardest.
We all felt his extreme devastation; however, my perspective was about moving forward. Although he resisted, I encouraged my husband to go ahead and preach. I reminded him and our children that we were no longer in the storm. We had made it out. At first he was not receptive to my point of view at all. He was so gripped with the grief of the devastation he had seen in that photo that he was inconsolable. I understood, but somehow I looked beyond that.
Emotions during devastation and challenges can be hard to control, and we cannot deny them because they are very much a part of being human. There are moments when life allows us to "stay there" a minute, to lock ourselves up in a room alone to weep or scream or curl up in a blanket and stare out the window all day. Been there, done that. On the other hand, there are times we must push past our emotions to keep our sanity and grab hold of our new normal.
I'm reminded of a story about King David, who taught this lesson during a huge storm in his life.
And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.
So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.
Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. (1 Sam. 30:1–6 KJV)
Often when devastation hits we look for external things to soothe or fulfill us, but we must pull strength from within. King David wept when he saw that what he valued was gone, but he inquired of God through prayer as to what he should do. Scripture says that afterward he encouraged himself. We must learn to pull ourselves out of dark situations by looking to God in order to discover the strength that's beneath the surface — under that hurt, sadness, confusion, and emptiness — and pull out healing for our souls.
So I gave my husband an encouraging push and challenged him to change his perspective, then left him alone at the hotel for a while to regroup. Later, when I returned, we received a call from a CNN reporter who had learned we were nearby. He asked my husband to come and speak on behalf of those who, like us, were victims of the chaos of Katrina. He accepted the invitation and spoke on camera, encouraging the people of Louisiana, his church family, the nation, his natural family, and, most important, himself. People expressed to us how encouraged they were after seeing and hearing him. When he finished speaking, he had found the strength to go on and complete his scheduled assignment — a preaching engagement in New York, which was very close to our hotel in New Jersey. God ministered to him while he was ministering to our churches and the world. Looking at King David again, when he was extremely down and out from the loss of family and possessions, he found enough strength to ask God what he should do next in his storm. David realized his assignment from God to care for humanity was not over. It was time to recover all. I was so heartened by his rekindled courage.
Here, I believe, it is important to speak about devastation and leadership. If you are a leader in a challenging situation, it can be overwhelming, especially when you are hurting as well. However, "whom God calls, He qualifies." Throughout my ministry years, I have been able to observe many people, from a distance and up close. God gives His leaders additional stamina, insight, confidence, and supernatural faith to move through these situations. When Moses was asked to approach the evil Egyptian king and command him to let the Israelites go, he said to God, "I'm nobody special to represent You. I can't speak on the people's behalf; I'm not articulate, and I have no real power to overtake him" (Ex. 4). Most people who are called to lead never feel adequate or qualified. However, when they answer the call, they do things so amazing that they are amazed themselves.
I have also seen strong leaders emerge during calamity. Just like Moses, these leaders begin to tell God why they are not the ones who should go, only for God to prove they were always the leaders meant for that appointed time. They are like those first responders who come out of nowhere and save people from otherwise fatal situations. The leader in them responded so quickly that they shocked themselves. After the CNN appearance, I watched my husband shift from survival mode to thrive mode.
Although my husband told me that Satan had said "it was over for him," and despite the many people who wrote ugly things on the internet about our loss, the thing my husband held on to was God telling him that his latter days would be greater than his former. For him, Hurricane Katrina was a Category 5 storm. He felt, at his age, it would be hard to rebuild. To add to that, Satan gave him a visual of his loss when someone, trying to be helpful, texted that picture, taken from a helicopter, of our largest church facility underwater. I told him, "Honey! Stop worrying and don't look at that picture. We are still alive and able to go on. God will sustain us." He called me his "aggravating angel." I'll take that.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Beyond the Storm"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Debra Morton.
Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword ix
Introduction: The Storm Play book xi
Chapter 1 Life Before the Storm 1
Chapter 2 Life Interrupted 21
Chapter 3 Maturity 35
Chapter 4 Finding Strength in the Aftermath 57
Chapter 5 Compartmentalizing the Impact 69
Chapter 6 Holding On to Hope 81
Chapter 7 Insight beyond Eyesight 97
Chapter 8 Rebuilding Season 113
Chapter 9 The Rebuilding Process 135
Chapter 10 Preparing for the Next Adversity 159
Chapter 11 Storm Support Team 177
Acknowledgments 197
Notes 199
About the Author 203
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