If you've been reading Half Air it will no surprise to hear that my family weathered hurricane Irma fairly well. We had no major damage and yard cleanup took about an hour. The greatest inconvenience was the loss of power for several days. The last night we were without power we stayed with friends who got power back earlier that day. The next several days we opened our house up to one of Deb's co-workers who still didn't have lights or electricity. Then, on Saturday, approximately 100 members of my church gathered together to help clean up storm damage in several communities where the residents didn't have the means or finances to take care of it themselves. As seen in these acts of kindness, it is during times of disaster that people are most willing to heed God's commands regarding loving our neighbors and helping out the needy. Unfortunately, most of the time we are too focused on ourselves or are too busy managing our personal schedules to reach out to others. Last week I wrote an article about prayer and why God doesn't always seem to answer in the way we wish. This is one reason I did not mention in that article. God could have spared us Irma and we could have continued on with our status quo. Instead, in His sovereign will, God allowed us to be impacted by the storm so that, through this adversity, we are given the incentive, if not outright compelled, to obey His commands regarding caring for others. Furthermore, it is not only Christians who are heeding God's word. Even atheist Dan Barker, who wrote the article to which I was responding, was obeying God's word written on his heart when his organization donated thousands of dollars to storm relief efforts. (Rom. 2:14-15a)

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It seems like we went full circle. First Amazon offered online ordering and delivery so you don't have to leave your home. Next, they offer free two-day shipping so that you can get your items faster. Then, if you really needed something now, they introduced same day and two-hour delivery on specific products. The latest, according to an announcement on Amazon's website, is that you can now go to a designated Amazon location to pick up your items. Driving to a brick and mortar building to shop, what a novel idea. Oh, you still have to wait up to two days for your items to arrive at the store, so I'm not exactly sure what is the benefit.

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Just a reminder, if you are into casual games and wish to pick up thirty-three games for a dollar, you have less than a week left. The Dollar Jumbo Bundle being offered by Bundle Stars ends on Thursday, September 28th.