Hurricane Helene

I’m sitting in North Florida right now awaiting Hurricane Helene. It’s strange to look out my second-floor window at the trees across from me that are barely moving. It is an overcast grey day but other than that it looks like any other normal rainy Florida day.

If it weren’t for the barrage of weather reports one would never know what is looming just miles away. A storm with a magnitude of over 120 mile-an-hour angry winds accompanied by a deluge of water ready to be dumped upon our coastline is imminent.

We know that it’s coming. It will not be a surprise to anyone once it reaches our state.

It’s making me think about the proverbial calm before the storm right this moment or other times in my life when there was an approaching personal storm that I didn’t see coming. Life has a way of doing that to all of us. The last one I went through was health-related. But as you can see—I’m still here.

I weathered the storm of a year’s worth of winds and rain assaulting my body. As we often view the results of the aftermath of hurricanes, there is always widespread damage, and the landscape is sometimes permanently altered.

Life events that come upon us unawares can also leave us permanently altered, but they can also leave us better for their coming. That’s my case. I learned about the close abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. I knew His voice and had experienced His comfort numerous times before. But there’s an even closer awareness one experiences in times of complete dependency.

I’m a needy person. I admit that with no shame. I understand the Word in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 where Paul says that his weakness is really his greatest strength. I know that might sound confusing but until you experience it personally it does sound like a contradiction.

There’s nothing like waking up in the middle of the night feeling so overwhelmed that you can hardly breathe, and the Holy Spirit softly comforts you enabling you to fall back to sleep. The truth is that no matter if we are facing an external weather-induced storm or a personal physical, mental, or emotional storm that seems that it will overtake us—there is a place of refuge in God.

Few people know that until something hits their life. Some people will never take advantage of the reality of a loving God who longs to embrace their life. I don’t know what their thoughts could be to turn down the promise of Eternal life and the comforter coming to abide within us.

But sadly, the landscape of Florida and other states will be altered in a few short hours. And there will be reports of people who didn’t take this storm seriously and suffered loss, some even their lives.

My viewers are few, but I still feel the need to offer a lifeline that is sure and secure. May God watch over Florida today and protect all that call upon His name.

I bless you