Becoming Spiritually Stronger

I don’t know who has the time to just sit around and figure out worthless bits of information and statistics, but it has been stated that with all the rain the state of Texas has received over the past month, the total comes to trillions of gallons of water. If that wasn’t enough, it is said that if all that water were gathered at one time, it would cover the state with water eight inches deep. We are fortunate to have many flood control dams in the state, and across the country, to help the slowing of rushing waters trying to get back to sea level. Unfortunately, there never seems to be enough of them when relentless rain clouds unleash torrential amounts of water in one area, turning serene streams and rivers into raging monsters of destruction. There is no way to describe the before and after visual shock one experiences without having seen it first hand. In the late seventies, I was making a regular trip to Medina, Texas through Bandera along the Medina River. One night rains came to the hill country around Kerrville, Medina and Bandera filling the Medina River and sending it on an unbelievable rampage, slowed only by the Medina Lake dam. Many lives were lost and much property destroyed. The next trip I made to Medina was a shock. Any time the highway neared the river, nothing was left but white stones and rocks, void of any dirt what-so-ever, for hundreds of feet either side of the once again trickling waters of the river. The once beautiful and warm tree-lined highway was naked and cold, remaining that way for several years. The area has since recovered, the last few times I traveled that way, but I don’t know what it looks like after this round of monsoonal rains. Now, tornadoes are another breed of destruction all together. What they leave behind is nothing short of a tangled, twisted, torn-up pile of memories, and that my friend I pray I will never have to experience. Just seeing it brings tears to one’s eye. Many Texans have suffered a severe blow to their life. All most of us can do is pray for the lose of their loved ones and their swift recovery from the devastation so they can get on with their lives. I almost feel guilty at times as I clean up some minor damages caused by the storms, but most of the time remember to thank God for my many blessings as I pray for those who have been stripped of their warmth and having to move forward with a long time of recovery.

[Acts 17:24-28] I have no doubt there are folks shaking their fist to the sky asking where God was in all this. If He calmed the sea why can’t he govern the storms of life a little better? God has made the world and everything in it, and it comes with rules that govern it. Jesus calmed the sea and raised the dead, along with countless other miracles, to show mankind the unfathomable power of God. We exist to seek His love and comfort, not for our physical well-being, but for our spiritual stability which enables us to move on after we have been physically struck down. Where was God? In the same place he was when mankind nailed his Son to the cross of Calvary. God allows things to happen, so that through the love of God-fearing men and women His glory might be made known; ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being’. It’s hard to see the physical blessings in any disaster, but through Christ the spiritual blessings of God’s love lifts us up and makes us stronger than ever before, ready to show the glory of God in our life to others and ready to take on future challenges of life, whatever they be. ‘…he is not far from each one of us; …We are his offspring.’