Bookends

I am a news junkie, I confess.  And right now we have a hurricane bolstering high winds and agitating waters in the gulf as it moves to hit land in Louisiana, and on the other hand, there is big story of the Republican Convention in Tampa whose job it is to nominate and define the Republican presidential candidate to run in November. One story is weather related that will impact a defined land mass, while the other story is a working and active ingredient that has potential to impact a country.  We do not know how either the storm will play out or the elections, but what we do know is that God in his heavenly realm has His sovereign hand on all the moving parts of life.  He facilitates the undercurrents, He oversees the details,  He manages life and events according to His eternal blueprint and He delegates the outcome  The question is how true to we believe that to be? 

I imagine that those folks in Louisiana are faithfully praying for tempered chaos, rather than a full fledged assault on their cities once again.  They have experienced and have been eyewitnesses to the destruction, devastation and calamity that a hurricane can bring and has brought in the past, and today as yesterdays, protection and safety are vital commodities that are yearned for. While they deal with anxiousness of the unknown results, they prepare the best they can and ride out whatever the storm blows their way in hopeful expectation that God will show His mercy.  The devastation that hit New Orleans exactly seven years ago, was addressed with monies for a newly build infrastructure of protection and now it will be tested for strength.   

In Tampa, the atmosphere is a total contrast.  The folks who are present are there to unite in purpose and in celebration for a newly elected candidate to run for president of this great nation that we call home, America. There have been great preparations and plans made to frame this nomination, but as we have heard on the news, many of those plans were thwarted by the same above mentioned storm that was originally moving in that very direction. We can make our plans, but it is God who has the final say.  We, as a nation are in turmoil, and the winds of uncertainty prevail. We do not know the direction that we as a nation will undertake because we do not know which candidate will be elected; for each one have a vastly different approach to running the country. But what we do know is that God is sovereign, and he manages the elections of our leaders just as he manages the intensity and path of a storm. I stand on hope that God shows His mercy on us as a nation, and directs us back into a nation of strength and valued commitment to the path set our by our forefathers.  

God is sovereign.  He is the one who lovingly guides us to Himself, using whatever tactics he deems to be useful in helping us take our eyes off of earthly matters and look up to Him for guidance, wisdom and strength.  We all have storms and uncertainty daunting our horizons, but if we are to have peace in the midst of stormy choas, we have to look up.  Whether it be in elections, or hurricanes,

we have to trust that God knows what he is doing, and bring back to mind that all things living are his creations anyway, and under his ultimate and divine control.  We can make our plans, but when God allows something to interfere with them, we have to be flexible enough to go back to God and ask for His help in gaining tools to recover, resolve and redirect our focus.

In Sunday school this past Sunday, it was suggested that we live within the confines of two bookends:

The first is that we can do nothing without God: 

John 15:5

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  

The second is that we can do all things through God:  

Philippians 4:13
I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

When I consider both bookends, and I too consider life as I know it, and the challenges that are brought before me, I can be overwhelmed with the uncertainties.  But if I really hold tight to the fact that we are really very insignificant in our abilities to control situations, and God in His mighty sovereignty holds the wand of redemption from a fall, restoration after a storm, and resolution after conflict, over all of us, it is in that truth that we can rest in peace.  A true peace that overrides uncertainty and anxiousness.  It is there that we will be given the strength that we need, the courage that we need and the wherewithal to get up and keep on forging forward in spite of earthly circumstances. 

My mom used to say candidly that "whether it is cold or whether it is hot, we will have weather whether or not." And as casually as it is said, it really holds great truth.  For life goes on, sometimes we are in the hot seat sweating out the uncertainties of life and we need to soak in God's tub of faithful promises, and other times we are surrounded by the chill of fear and we are in dire need of God's blanket of assurance. but whatever weather we are faced with, we can faithfully stand on the truth that God has it under His control, for the bookends of scripture tell us so.  

Philippians 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.   

      

Dear Lord, I have a tendency to get anxious when I know there is nothing that I can do to control a situation that is close to my heart. Help me to focus on the fact that You are the ultimate manager of life, and it is what is close to your heart that matters. I often times get steeped into the details of things that have no lasting value, while you on the other hand are all about eternal holdings. I praise you for your everlasting commitment to help us to embrace your purity, righteousness and truth, and pray that you will fortify each of us with desire to grasp your ways.   Amen