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When the waters rise…

Like most of you, I have had Texas and particularly those in Houston on my mind this past week.

Disasters like this happen around the world, but somehow we seem to take note of it the closer to home it hits.

I have been walking around our house and going around town conducting the business of my life with various activities, constantly trying to grasp how different my life would be if we were buried under flood waters.

I think about how my To Do list would be radically shortened if it involved only…

find clean water to drink, food to eat and wait for this muck to recede so we can go and see what’s left of our home.

I think of schools and the days of education being lost. Kids who will need course work done for college entrance. Athletes and musicians and such who were counting on scholarships based on this year’s achievements.

I think of photographs saved in boxes and on hard drives.

Records of taxes and receipts saved in filing systems.

Businesses that you would hire to come help you clean up after water damage have been washed away.

Babies are still being born, and Alzheimer patients still need regular meds.

I think of trying to find out if people I love are ok and where are they?

I think of how I rely on my cell phone…but it has to be charged twice a day to keep going.

I think of the huge amount of debris and inoperable equipment that will have to be disposed of.

And I am overwhelmed to even know what to pray.

Cat in the Hat messes is what I used to call them.

Messes so big and so great and so tall…there is no way to fix them…there is no way at all.

And all I know to do is spread my hands wide before an Almighty and Holy and Righteous God who has offered to extend grace and mercy to help us in our time of need, and cry out…surely Lord…Thou knowest what to do.

Maybe that seems odd since I don’t normally speak in King James vernacular.

But when I am interceding for needs that exceed any hope of human intervention to bring about peace…I resort to words that remind me that our help in times we can not understand will only come from our God who is greater than all our needs.

The larger the mess…the fewer the words…it would seem.

It is in times when things are at the worst that we most feel God’s heart of compassion.

And when we go to our knees and humbly confess our helplessness, we begin to see His mighty hand unfold in ways we could not ask or imagine.

There are many dear ones, going through floods of a different kind.

The nations are in turmoil as people and governments, businesses and families experience greater and more frequent shakings.

May God lead each of us to a place of seeking Him and crying out for His intervention in the lives of those who are being severely tested.

I pray we will all be found faithful, as He is faithful, to the end <3

But this is what the LORD says…the One who made you…the One who formed you…the One who has ransomed you…bought you back from the land of captivity…when you pass through the deepest waters, I will be with you…even as the rivers rise around you…they will not overtake you…when you walk through fire…you will not be consumed by it….for I AM…the LORD…your God…you are precious in My eyes…and I love you <3

My paraphrase of Isaiah 43:1-4 based on ESV <3

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