By Jolina St. Pierre

For three months, David Young, a teaching minister at North Boulevard Church of Christ, had been in constant conversation with God about having faith in difficult situations. Last April he had no idea to what extent he was about to be tested.

“I asked God to give me a test. He put me in a tornado,” Young said.

The minister was out for a run on the Murfreesboro Greenway when he found himself caught in the tornado. Ironically, as he ran, he was rehearsing his Easter Sunday morning sermon.

A mile from his car, Young found himself in the middle of a lightning storm when he decided to take cover between the trail and the river. Surrounded by trees, he had no idea what was coming toward him.

“When I stood up, I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t tell what it was,” Young said. “I never saw the tornado until it was on top of me. I had about five seconds to figure out what to do. It was on top of me that fast.”

Young tightly wrapped his arms around an oak tree and held on for life as the trees around him shot out of the ground like missiles. With his eyes wide open he watched in amazement as debris, cars and even a house flew by him.

As the wind suddenly went from 5 mph to 200 mph Young said it was like being punched in the face. He was flapping in the wind as he held on to the tree. When he dropped to the ground, he knew he was in the eye of the tornado.

“It was a different feeling. It felt real peaceful,” Young said. “To be in the eye of the tornado is a real spiritual place to be.”

It was not until the back wall of the tornado hit him that Young realized he might not survive. A semi-tractor trailer wrapped around a tree, a piece of corrugated metal embedded itself in the tree only inches above his head and a 26-inch tree trunk landed a foot from him. Its branches and a multitude of building debris covered him.

Once the storm passed, Young climbed the mountain of debris to safety, thanks to the help of a stranger he never identified. Young was bruised and cut. A first responder to the scene sent him to the hospital where he received staples in his head.

Young still thinks about the tornado and how it affected his life. He continues to run on the Greenway and occasionally stops to meditate by the tree that he held onto, and he still has dinner with Teddy Walls and Anthony Olsen, the two men who drove him to the hospital.
Young has more confidence in God, and he has become more forthright and bold in his preaching, although he has not asked for any tests of faith lately.

“It sure felt like that tornado was looking for me that day,” Young said. “I’m not afraid to just be what God called me to be.”