Grace Community Christian Church

 

Archived Things Above

Hurricane Season (8/29/08)

As I write this, the remnants of tropical storm Fay are moving up the East Coast, Killer hurricane Gustav is threatening the Gulf Coast, & tropical storm Eight (oops, Hanna now) is firing up in the Atlantic, headed to the Caribbean. Oil rigs are being evacuated, New Orleans is sweating (again) & cruise ship industry bean-counters are having a fit. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who stand to be impacted by this tropical parade of nature's power. I think of the thousands of homes we saw in Haiti, steeply stacked on entire hillsides, & I wonder, What in the world prevents them from just washing away? Unfortunately, sometimes they do exactly that.

When you think about it, this really is a dangerous planet. And we human beings, as smart as we think we are, are really pretty puny compared to the forces arrayed against us. Hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, lightening strikes, tornadoes, landslides, wild animals - it's a wonder we live as well & as long as we do. Just this week in Frederick, a black bear attacked an alpaca. (I'd never even heard of an alpaca before, but they look very friendly.) It could just as easily have been a toddler, or a pony. Can anyone deny that nature, while often beautiful, is also cruel & unforgiving & sometimes completely unpredictable?

Wouldn't it be great if there was a Weather Channel for your life? A personalized forecast that you could turn to & see the march of madness headed your way? Some sort of warning system that would give you a heads-up that your entire world was about to be upended? A color-coded "cone of disaster" showing the possible landfalls of disaster on the shoreline of you? (On second thought, maybe that's information I'd rather not have!)

Nowhere does scripture suggest that following God is an insurance policy against disaster. In fact, it pretty much argues the other way- that following God is a guarantee that all sorts of difficulties will now be invited into your life! What is assured, however, is that if your life is built upon the solid foundation of obeying God's word, when (not if) the storm hits, you will stand.

"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock." (Matthew 7:24-25, Message)


Jim Dewar --