“Really, God? A n o t h e r hurricane?”
Full disclosure here. That was my first heart-gut reaction when foreboding forecasts of Milton blew up our screens. And boy I was miffed. Three, count ‘em, three this year: Debby, Helene, and Milton haunting and hurling their way to ravage many parts and lives in our state.
“Come on, God. You can do better than this! Where is all that grace you promised us all through the Scripture?” Yeah, it took me a couple of days to let the clanging noise of my gut reactions settle down so I could hear His whispers in that emotional storm and the literal storm to come. Then I heard His gentle voice: “My grace, all kinds of grace, is right in front of you, my son. You can drink as little or as much as you like.” Then He reminded me: “I never promised that I’d keep you from the storms. I promised that I’d keep you through the storms.” Oh yeah, right, John
Jesus specifically said: “In this world you will have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Okay. So how does that work exactly? First, we need to be honest with ourselves and others that life is totally unpredictable, surely uncontrollable, and universally unfair. This is the result and impact of God’s gift of free will to us, and our abuse of it to sin and ravage ourselves and others—hence, TONS of tribulation. (Let’s read that again.) Throughout history, though we have done tons of great things, we have also done tons of bad things at every level of life: personal, cultural, societal, and global corruption, indoctrination, contamination, manipulation, invasion, and domination. And nature itself was impacted by Adam and Eve’s original sin so that the planet itself groans with hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, droughts, famine, pestilence, and more.
So, let’s not blame God for the tribulations. But secondly, and here’s the good news, the Lord is willing to be right there with us, always, with His “grace upon grace.”
So, as we all watched the roller-coaster weather forecasts of Milton’s pending destruction with daily dread, none of us knew how bad it would be in our town or home, though the cone of predictability was remarkably accurate. Kudos to them! And that is when Lindy and I began drinking more and more of His grace.
The grace whispers to prepare well.
The grace whispers to help others.
The grace whispers to pray through.
The grace whispers to heed warnings.
The grace whispers to obey authorities.
The grace whispers to keep hope.
The grace whispers to trust Him.
About that last one. Trust Him to do what? Keep us unscathed from the hurricane? Send it somewhere else? Jesus said as much in Gethsemane when facing an undeserved and unfair horrific death on the cross when he asked the Father to “take this cup away from me, but not my will, but Thy will be done.” The Father didn’t take it away. He allowed human free will to take its course on His own Son. But . . . He was WITH him the entire time, and He used it to accomplish far deeper things that couldn’t be seen at the time. That’s God’s way. In short, the harder and deeper we may get hit by all kinds of hurricanes in life, the deeper God is … with His grace, His strength, His comfort, His healing, His rebuilding, and His purposes. And we are seeing that becoming more and more available to weary and wounded people, all around a world littered with tribulation. Some were hit very hard this time around.
Others were not. But whatever the case at your house, my friends, whether now or later, there is plenty of grace available to you, directly from the gentle hand and heart of God. Just keep listening. Receiving His Grace with you, Pastor Mark Articles, videos, and podcasts: markpg.org. Write and share at [email protected]. Hear me every Saturday at 8 a.m. on 91.5 FM.
