The Swirling Vortex of Doom

From 5/23/07. I love this story about Lake Peigneur.

- Running my cousin’s 3-wheeler into a barbed-wire fence.
- Buying a country music CD.
- Shattering my own windshield while replacing a wiper blade.
- Trying to grow a goatee.
- Going to the bathroom with poison ivy on my hands.

I’ve made a ton of mistakes in my life. Most of them have been relatively inconsequential – thank goodness. God is good to us that way. We get lots of grace. But some of our mistakes, even the small ones, have terrible consequences.

This is especially true with our words. The smallest of mistakes with the words we use with someone can have lifelong effects. This shouldn’t be any surprise to us. James 3:1-12 reminds us of the power and danger of our words. “See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!" (vs. 5)

I was reminded of how small mistakes can have huge consequences this weekend when I heard the story of Lake Peigneur in Louisiana. In 1980, it was a small freshwater lake only 6 to 11 feet deep. A drilling company began drilling operations from the lake, but after drilling some 1300 feet below the lake, they ran into trouble.

Click here or here for the full story. Click here for a video segment.

Here’s the short story. The drilling company hit a salt mine below the lake. Water started to rush into the salt mine, dissolving the salt pillars and collapsing the salt dome. A whirlpool began in the lake that eventually sucked down the oil rig, 11 barges, a tugboat, trailers, trucks, trees, and who knows what else. The lake typically drained into the Gulf of Mexico 12 miles away through a canal. Once this swirling vortex of doom began, the water in the canal reversed directions. Water from the Gulf of Mexico filled in the salt mine and lake. Lake Peigneur is now 1300 feet deep instead of 11. And the saltwater drastically changed the biology of the lake.

All of that from a 14 inch drilling bit.

I’ve got to be more careful with my words.

And poison ivy.