Cable news crews race to hurricanes. They show live updates: water swirling, trees bent, and wind knocking loose items behind the reporter, who is trying not to fall on his backside.
The hurricane floods coastal cities. Buildings collapse. Some residents retreat, while a few stalwart souls remain. When they are lucky, they survive.
Our world is now a hurricane. Weather disasters abound: floods, droughts, wildfires, and earthquakes. How many times can an area get the hundred-year flood, record rainfall, or sudden earthquake? Midwestern corn drowns under floodwater while western strawberries struggle to ripen with frigid temperatures. Each disaster is a hurricane gust.
A gallon of gas costs more than a gallon of milk. Many face food shortages. The cost of our basic staples increases each week. As families debate whether to buy health insurance, food, or gas, air conditioning is a luxury. Simple foods like tomatoes are recalled for food risks. These are the hurricane’s flying debris.
Families with steady sources of income see them in jeopardy — layoffs, slowing sales, and shutdowns. These are the family homes in the hurricanes — our shelters suddenly have leaks. The houses we thought were built on rock, seem to be built on sand that is quickly washing away. Will the roof hold up, or will it collapse? Will the family lose everything?
Then the technology that is supposed to save our world is changing it. Text message Leet looks as foreign as Greek. A friend is someone you click on a facebook instead of a confidante. Privacy is flushed away with the click of a cell phone camera.
Everything that gave us security seems torn away.
We are the family in the home in the hurricane, trying to figure out how to survive. How do we care for our children? How do we give them stability?
Then a tragedy strikes. A troubled gunman killed his coworkers. The tragedy ripples throughout a community. The winds of the hurricane fall silent.
As the community waits for victims to be identified, they live in the hurricane’s eye. A time of prayer. They go through the motions in slow motion. A sparrow sitting on the yard looks more alive, and the grass is a more vibrant green. In the hurricane’s eye, the things we took for granted show themselves as miracles of God.
It no longer matters whether our burger has a tomato slice on it.
Our challenge as people of faith in this hurricane of uncertainty is to rest in the Lord. He is the real hurricane’s eye. We must cling to Him and rest at the foot of His cross.
The strongest winds of the hurricane are just outside the eye. An old hymn describes how we see them, when resting in God’s hurricane eye:
Then let the hurricane roar,
It will soon be o’er;
We’ll weather the blast,
And we’ll land at last,
Safe on the evergreen shore.
Other times had their storms, wars, and rumors of war. After the death of Abraham Lincoln, the Reverend Robert F. Sample gave a 33-page sermon to his congregation in Philadelphia in 1865. His words then can carry us today:
The day is not far distant. There is a bow in the cloud. There is a flood of light flashing athwart the troubled sky, at which we look through our tears. Though we have not cast anchor, we are nearing the harbor. Tried patriots who, trusting in God, have weathered many a storm, have gone aloft, and overlooking the intervening waves they shout down to us, “Land ahead!-Land ahead!”
Till that blessed consummation is reached let all questions of minor importance be forgotten…
. But I would not have you forget there is another and a better kingdom, not of this world, which claims your service….Beloved hearers, death is not far from any one of you! Eternity is at hand! Today, whilst clouds gather, and deep shadows rest on your hearts, hear the voice of Jesus, saying: “Come unto me, ye tempest tossed and not comforted, and I will give you rest.”
Believe, obey, and live. Life’s conflicts ended, you shall go to a peaceful home afar. There the glorious Lord will be unto you a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby!
The difference between our hurricane and the one we see on the news is no matter where we are, no matter how bad the storm gets, we can turn to the Lord and rest in the His eye. He will use these storms to refine us so we will be better prepared to greet Him when we reach the other shore.
We can take comfort from 1 Peter 5:7-10:
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you. Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. In his kindness, God called you to his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.
