{"id":4754,"date":"2025-07-17T10:17:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T14:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4754"},"modified":"2025-07-17T10:17:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T14:17:32","slug":"a-bolt-from-the-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/17\/a-bolt-from-the-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bolt from the Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

You\u2019re grounded.<\/em>

Those are the words no teenager wants to hear.

But they also happen to be the two words we most want to hear in the midst of an electrically active thunderstorm.\u00a0

Lightning-producing weather events are surprisingly common.\u00a0

Every year the earth experiences about 16 million such storms.\u00a0That means there are 43,000 every day, or 1,800 every hour.\u00a0Lightning flashes eight million times every 24 hours somewhere on the planet.\u00a0That means 100 bolts of lightning every second.<\/em>

The power, intensity, and stark beauty of lightning bolts have always fascinated humanity.

And the danger is very real. Just this week, Norwegian Olympic bronze medalist Alpine skier Audun Groenveld was struck and killed by a bolt of lightning as he walked toward his family\u2019s cabin. He was 49.

Divine beings like Zeus and Baal were traditionally depicted as hurlers of thunderbolts.\u00a0Job says that God \u201clets loose his lightning to the ends of the earth,\u201d and Psalm 135 declares that all the aspects of a summer storm are evidence of God\u2019s power.

Despite generations of scientific inquiry, however, lightning remains mysterious.

Meteorologists aren\u2019t entirely sure how cloud-borne charged particles trigger such dramatic electrical events.

And no one claims to know how and where the next bolt is going to strike.

Scientists are on much safer ground, however, when debunking the most common myths about lightning.\u00a0

Did Ben Franklin really fly a kite during a thunderstorm, hoping to attract a bolt that would electrically charge a key hanging from the line?\u00a0Few historians believe that actually happened.\u00a0What everyone agrees is that it is an exceedingly bad idea to try to fly a kite during a thunderstorm.\u00a0The results could definitely be electrifying.

Is it true that lightning never strikes the same place twice?\u00a0Absolutely not.\u00a0Sometimes tall targets like the Empire State Building are struck multiple times during the same storm.

How about wearing sneakers during a thunderstorm?\u00a0Hasn\u2019t it been demonstrated that the layer of rubber touching the ground protects you from lightning?\u00a0

Unfortunately, no.\u00a0

Even though a lightning strike lasts only a fraction of a second, it typically heats the surrounding atmosphere to three times the temperature of the sun.\u00a0No pair of Air Jordans is equal to such a burst of energy. \u00a0

Ben Franklin understood that a lightning bolt has to go somewhere<\/em>, or its effects might be catastrophic.\u00a0

That\u2019s why he is credited with promoting the use of the lightning rod, a metal bar that is fixed at the highest point of a building or object.\u00a0A wire is attached to the rod and then anchored several feet below the ground. Since a bolt is typically drawn to the highest part of a structure, the electricity is carried away from the building (where it might start a fire) and discharged into the ground \u2013 something that can safely handle its ferocity.

Human beings have to be grounded, too.\u00a0

And not just during thunderstorms.

We have to be planted deeply enough in something that can handle the shocks we might receive this week: that phone call that will come at 3:00 am; the client who will suddenly decide to renege on a crucial business promise; the child who will sit down next to us and say, \u201cMom, I have to tell you something.\u201d\u00a0

How can we handle such bolts out of the blue?

We must be grounded in truth.\u00a0In character.\u00a0In virtue.\u00a0In mission.\u00a0

Which is just another way of saying we must be deeply anchored in God.

\u201cBe strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified\u2026 for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you\u201d<\/em> (Deuteronomy 31:6).

Trusting him is the ultimate ground wire for whatever might happen to come our way.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here You\u2019re grounded. Those are the words no teenager wants to hear. But they also happen to be the two words we most want to hear in the midst of an electrically active thunderstorm.\u00a0 Lightning-producing weather events are surprisingly common.\u00a0 Every year the earth experiences about 16 million such storms.\u00a0That means there… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[961,132],"class_list":["post-4754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lightning","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4756,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754\/revisions\/4756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}