I\u2019ve been watching weather updates this week about Florence, the hurricane that\u2019s hurtling toward the east coast, threatening \u201ca massive assault on the Carolinas,\u201d according to the latest report.<\/p>\n
As I\u2019ve watched the hurricane take shape, I\u2019ve considered the chaos and fear and potential destruction hurricanes create.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve thought a lot about storms.<\/p>\n
How can we feel safe when everything we care about is at risk?\u00a0 How can we feel secure when all we know and love is vulnerable to destruction?\u00a0 How can we feel hopeful when we know that no matter how hard we try to hold on, everything can be taken from our grasp by forces beyond our control?<\/p>\n
This week, the storm that\u2019s threatening the lives and possessions and well-being of my brothers and sisters is called Florence.\u00a0 At other times, the storms are called Divorce.\u00a0 Or Doubt.\u00a0 Or Bankruptcy. Or Betrayal.\u00a0 The diagnosis we never wanted to get.\u00a0 The friendship we thought we\u2019d never lose.\u00a0 The prodigal child who\u2019s wandered so far, our faint hearts can\u2019t hope any more.<\/p>\n
And the question we always ask is, \u201cWhere is God in the midst of the storm?\u201d<\/p>\n
Where is God when the winds and waves are raging?\u00a0 Where is God when the lives we\u2019ve painstakingly built are being\u00a0 irreparably destroyed?\u00a0 Where is God when we\u2019re begging for rescue?<\/p>\n
Where is God in the storms of life, when we need God more than ever and yet God often seems the farthest away?<\/p>\n
The famous preacher Charles Spurgeon wrote a commentary on Psalm 46, which begins,<\/p>\n
God is our refuge\u00a0and strength,<\/span> Spurgeon wrote that in life\u2019s greatest storms, we can still trust in the goodness of God because \u201cGod comes closer to us than the storm could ever be.\u201d<\/p>\n So often when life hits us hard, when we\u2019re in the midst of \u201ca massive assault,\u201d we\u2019re like a sailor who\u2019s been thrown overboard who\u2019s scanning the shore his rescue.\u00a0 But what the psalmist says is that God is our Rock.\u00a0 In the midst of the storm, God\u2019s not the lifeguard standing on the shore at a safe distance from danger; God is the rock that\u2019s anchored securely in the midst of the raging sea.<\/p>\n When we\u2019re struggling the most, when we\u2019re asking, \u201cWhere is God?\u201d\u00a0 the answer is that God is right there in the storm with us.\u00a0 God is the rock we can cling to, the rock that is stronger than the raging winds and roaring waves.\u00a0 The rock that outlasts even the most horrific hurricanes.\u00a0 \u00a0And that\u2019s why we can say with Spurgeon that we trust in a good and loving God in the midst of storms because God keeps his promise to come closer to us than the storm could ever be.<\/em><\/p>\n If you\u2019re in the midst of a storm this week \u2014 physical, emotional, spiritual or otherwise \u2014 take heart, dear one.<\/p>\n You are held by the Rock who\u00a0never leaves, never changes \u2026 and will never let you go.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been watching weather updates this week about Florence, the hurricane that\u2019s hurtling toward the east coast, threatening \u201ca massive assault on the Carolinas,\u201d according to the latest report. As I\u2019ve watched the hurricane take shape, I\u2019ve considered the chaos and fear and potential destruction hurricanes create.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve thought a lot about storms. How […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3133,"featured_media":2130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4521,4518,136,2380,4512,4515,4524],"class_list":["post-2124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charles-surgeon","tag-closer-than-the-storm-could-ever-be","tag-hope","tag-psalm-46","tag-storms-of-life","tag-stormy-sea","tag-where-is-god"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>an ever-present\u00a0help\u00a0in trouble.<\/span><\/span>
\nTherefore we will not fear,\u00a0though the earth give way<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and the mountains fall\u00a0into the heart of the sea,<\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/sup>though its waters roar\u00a0and foam<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and the mountains quake\u00a0with their surging.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n