The Storm
The Storm
by Danny C. Wash
It was a dark and stormy night,
as the familiar cliched opening
line of many mystery books go.
Well, it was a dark and stormy night,
but it had nothing to do with the weather.
The storm was in my mind as I thought
about all the worrisome wind and darkness
of the questions and fear surrounding me.
In a storm in the atmosphere, you try to find shelter
and I thought the same might be true in my mind.
The shelter is usually deep in the middle, so I
looked inside and deep in my mind for peace
but there was none, the storm roared even more.
Accusations, “what ifs,” and, “if only’s” blew
even harder. And then, the water from the mental
rain begin to rise against the foundations of my life.
The flood water washed away all my foundation
of money, things, and the worldly protections.
Down I went into the whirlpool of sadness, loss,
fear of the future, and trust in my human remedies.
And then as I felt like I was going under for the
third time, and it was a hopeless situation; a lifeline
was thrown over my shoulder to grab onto. What
was this? It was like a searchlight coming on in my
head. It was a story from the Bible I remembered
from my childhood that my Sunday School teacher
read to us about a person, like me, who built his house
upon a sand foundation that was washed away with
the flood waters and then another person who built upon
a rock foundation.* That first person was me; I built my life
house on sand and it was being washed away in this storm.
It was becoming clear that I needed a rock for my life. And
I remembered from the story that Jesus was that rock and was
where I was told I needed to rebuild my life. But, where do I
start? I learned that it starts with a giving in and giving up with
my building of my life and realizing that Jesus has laid the
foundation and the building is guided and enabled by Him. I
learned that I was to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and He
would save me. It’s being saved by grace alone through faith alone
in Jesus Christ alone. And the building of my life on Him after that
is in the same way. Grace, faith, and Christ Jesus alone and then
I would no longer be alone but with and in Jesus Christ!
* “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7: 24-27
