This is one in a series of Voices pieces by Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. We’re calling it the Mayor’s Minute. Want to share your voice? You can contribute to NOOGAtoday here.
There is a story in my faith that may be familiar to many of you as well. The story is of the prophet Elijah, who fled from his enemies in a cave on the side of a mountain.
That’s when God comes to Elijah and says: come out here, and you will find me. Elijah moves to the edge of the cave and witnesses a tremendous wind, then an earthquake, and then a great fire.
God wasn’t in any of those things. Instead, he was in what came next—a quiet so still that Elijah knew: That is where God is.
These last few weeks I have been reminded of the great faithfulness of this community. We have experienced our own form of fire and earthquake, and certainly the wind.
Yet, we have found, Chattanooga is not in the storm. Our true character is in the still, small voice that sends us to work when the storm is passed.
When I say the state of our city is strong, I say it because I know it’s a fact. I grew up here, and I have spent my entire adult life here. There has never been a better time to live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Even so, the COVID-19 epidemic that is plaguing the world with a million infections has not missed Chattanooga. Thirteen members of our community have lost their lives so far. Right now, we are all trying to figure out what comes next, knowing that both our health and our pocketbooks depend on the choices we make now..
I truly believe that we will not be remembered for the time we stayed in our homes, as necessary as that has been—and still is. I am convinced we will be remembered for what we did next. Did our city take these challenges and rebuild upon them something new?
I see opportunities to invest our limited time and resources in projects that can make our city be more fair, more open, prosperous, and safe. Projects like a plan for nationwide broadband connectivity, a renewed commitment to repairing our country’s bridges, roads, and other critical infrastructure, giving new skills to displaced workers so that they can compete in the industries of tomorrow, and -- perhaps most critically -- more investment in more housing that bring these jobs closer to more families.
You may have other ideas about what we should do next, and I’m eager to hear them. Remember you can always email me at mayor@chattanooga.gov.
There is more on our agenda than flattening the curve; we must get ahead of it. We have a responsibility to prepare for the recovery at the same time we are helping people get through the current fallout.
So let us remember Elijah. How natural it must have felt to run away and hide. How, in the midst of a great trial, the temptation must have been powerful to say, I just want to live out my life here, on a mountain, by myself.
Our future is not in the storm. It is not in the locked door. Our future, if we are brave enough to listen, is in the still small voice that sends us to work when the storm has passed.That is what our city has done for decades, and what we are called to do next. I look forward to working with you in the weeks and months ahead.
