Weathering The Storms of Life

The Storms Will Come

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24 (HCSB)

People sometimes think being a Christian exempts them from the storms of life. This is simply not true. Jesus reminds us that God “… causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” Matthew 5:45 (HCSB). If you have a pulse, you can be rest assured that you are either coming out of a storm, going through a storm, or getting ready to enter one. It is simply called “Life”. Storm are often unpredictable and usually painful.

Andy Cook, pastor of Shirley Hills Baptist Church, Tells the story of the Andrea Gail. “To understand why the Andrea Gail never had a chance, one needs only to search the clues along the shoreline of the Eastern Seaboard.

At first, it went by the name of the “Halloween Storm,” given its late-October fury. As far south as the North Carolina coastline, winds of 35 to 45 mph lashed the area for five consecutive days, and waves of 10 to 30 feet pounded the beach. In Rhode Island, a fisherman was swept off the rocks by heavy surf and killed. In New York, another man fishing from a bridge lost his life when he was either blown off the bridge, or swept off by high waves.

The New England coastline was hammered so soundly, even a few lighthouses – buildings designed to survive the very worst weather – were damaged. With winds hovering around 65 to 75 mph, utility poles, trees, piers, sea walls and boardwalks simply disappeared. Thousands of lobster traps were destroyed. Flooding was extensive, invading homes, and closing roads and airports.

At sea, it was far worse.

At 80 degrees, the water of the Atlantic that fall week in 1991 was still very warm, almost tropical. But the seasons had changed in New England, and a cold front from Canada was racing across the northeastern corner of the country. At the same time, a hurricane was forming in the warm ocean water, moving toward a collision with the cold front in what soon became known as “The Perfect Storm.”

The Andrea Gail had a crew of six, and the small fishing vessel was caught square in the crosshairs of the colliding storms. Sustained winds of 60 knots and sea swells of 39 feet were recorded, and unconfirmed reports told of even stronger winds and higher waves. The movie that told her story, and coined the phrase “the perfect storm,” painted a graphic picture of a crew caught in the middle of overwhelming difficulty, pressed in on every side by the colliding weather patterns.”

The story of “The Perfect Storm” may resemble your life at some point in time, maybe even now. What do you do when the “Perfect Storm” hits? How do you survive? This is when we realize how important it is to build the foundation of life on the rock. Jesus reminds us that the wise man is likened to someone who not only hears His words but acts on them because the storms will come.

Today’s Prayer

Dear Lord,

Help me to examine my life and its foundation so that when the storms do come, I will be able to stand. In Jesus Name, Amen.