Storm Damage
My digital alarm clock didn't wake me on that strange morning a few weeks ago and the analog clock hadn't moved since 11:30 the night before. "Ok, so we don't have power", I thought. Pretty soon we were stoking up the woodstove and going through our standard power outage routines--fill as many containers with water as possible before the water runs out, assemble candles and flashlights to a place we can find them in the dark, call and listen to the recording on the power company voicemail. Sometime in the midst of all of this, one of the kids looked out the window and noticed that the woodshed roof was laying in a heap about 15 feet from it's proper location on top of the woodshed. This realization caused me to take a few moments to survey the property for any other signs of storm damage. Thankfully, we didn't have any trees down, but a trip to a friend's house to get some more water revealed that we weren't the only ones affected by this storm. Power lines all along the way had trees leaning on them, an enclosed trailer was crushed on one side of the road, an outbuilding blown over on the other. And lest I think that the effects were felt just in the rural area that I live, this week I noticed a 150' pine tree laying on the ground within 40 feet of a $2 million riverfront home in town.
How often are eternal issues thrown up on the canvas of the physical experiences of our lives. As the winds whipped through the area causing damage and destruction regardless of race or class or status, so the storms of life and the effects of sin wreak havoc on us all. As Jesus said, "in the world, ye shall have tribulation." None are immune from the inherent dangers of living in a fallen world. For some, it is the tragedy of abusive parents or relatives, for others, the it is the sad result of foolish youthful choices. There are a thousand sources that might bring the storms, but the results are always the same--broken hearts and damaged souls.
But this is not the complete picture painted for us by this area storm. The rest of the picture is found in examining the cleanup effort. It is easy to see the short-sightedness of a man in a mansion who is still tripping over the huge tree in his front yard several weeks the storm. But what about the man who is still tripping over emotional damage from an alcoholic father 25 years after the offenses occurred? or the woman who keeps stumbling on the memory of a self-serving choice to end a pregnancy 30 years ago? Much of the tragedy of the ongoing presence of "storm damage" in our lives is not that it happened in the first place, but that it has never been cleaned up.
The rest of the verse quoted above gives hope for damaged people. "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) Jesus never promised that we would not have storms, he promised the opposite actually. But along with the storms that will surely come, he promised the possibility of overcoming. Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible never teaches that we must be forever defined by our past traumas or failures. Instead, it offers healing, forgiveness and deliverance to those who will humble themselves and seek for it earnestly in Christ himself. As Jesus said in another place, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."(Jn. 8:36)
Our hesitation in bringing our broken selves to Jesus is not generally that we don't believe that he can help, but the price that he asks us to pay. The cost of this overcoming is the primarily the price of a bowed knee and a bent neck. You see, it was only the proud and self-sufficient who never experienced a healing touch from Jesus. But his loving heart was quickly drawn to the side of ones who laid their need out openly before him, his healing power quietly meeting their need. The empty hands that they brought to Jesus were filled with the gracious and sufficient answer to their need.
The reassuring word for all who recognize themselves in the picture of this recent storm is this: Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
How often are eternal issues thrown up on the canvas of the physical experiences of our lives. As the winds whipped through the area causing damage and destruction regardless of race or class or status, so the storms of life and the effects of sin wreak havoc on us all. As Jesus said, "in the world, ye shall have tribulation." None are immune from the inherent dangers of living in a fallen world. For some, it is the tragedy of abusive parents or relatives, for others, the it is the sad result of foolish youthful choices. There are a thousand sources that might bring the storms, but the results are always the same--broken hearts and damaged souls.
But this is not the complete picture painted for us by this area storm. The rest of the picture is found in examining the cleanup effort. It is easy to see the short-sightedness of a man in a mansion who is still tripping over the huge tree in his front yard several weeks the storm. But what about the man who is still tripping over emotional damage from an alcoholic father 25 years after the offenses occurred? or the woman who keeps stumbling on the memory of a self-serving choice to end a pregnancy 30 years ago? Much of the tragedy of the ongoing presence of "storm damage" in our lives is not that it happened in the first place, but that it has never been cleaned up.
The rest of the verse quoted above gives hope for damaged people. "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) Jesus never promised that we would not have storms, he promised the opposite actually. But along with the storms that will surely come, he promised the possibility of overcoming. Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible never teaches that we must be forever defined by our past traumas or failures. Instead, it offers healing, forgiveness and deliverance to those who will humble themselves and seek for it earnestly in Christ himself. As Jesus said in another place, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."(Jn. 8:36)
Our hesitation in bringing our broken selves to Jesus is not generally that we don't believe that he can help, but the price that he asks us to pay. The cost of this overcoming is the primarily the price of a bowed knee and a bent neck. You see, it was only the proud and self-sufficient who never experienced a healing touch from Jesus. But his loving heart was quickly drawn to the side of ones who laid their need out openly before him, his healing power quietly meeting their need. The empty hands that they brought to Jesus were filled with the gracious and sufficient answer to their need.
The reassuring word for all who recognize themselves in the picture of this recent storm is this: Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
Labels: Brokenness, Personal Revival, Revival
posted by pressingon at
5:22 PM
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