The Lord is good, The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in Him.” Nahum 1:7
It came up suddenly and without warning. The other day, I was chatting on the phone with my wife Judy. She was down house and grand dog sitting in Murray, Kentucky and I was manning the fort at 217. So, while we were talking, I happened to look out the window and noticed that the wind had gone from nearly nothing to a whole bunch. I mentioned it to Judy and then I remembered that the patio umbrellas were up, and I knew that they weren’t big fans of the wind.
I quickly gave an “Oh, no” to Judy explaining about the umbrellas in about ten words, said a quick goodbye and ran for the patio. Sure enough, the large, nine-foot sails were rocking in the wind which by now was surely gale force. I got one of the umbrellas down and then turned around to lower number two. Just about the time I started cranking, a big gust of wind came and literally tried to lift the table, and umbrella, off the ground. Surely if I had not been there, it would have been turned over and surely damaged…or destroyed.
Well, it began to rain but I still managed to get it down before heading into the house but here is the ironic part. As quickly as the wind and storm came, it was over. The rain continued for a little while, but the wind was over, gone, done. The next time I spoke with Judy, I told her about the storm, the umbrellas and the near miss. I was grateful to have remembered but there was one thing that would have been even better…to have known ahead.
You see the possibility of storms had been forecast but the threat was so small I chose to ignore it. Looking back, it would have been better to prepare for the possibility by lowering the umbrellas ahead of time. Had I lost one or both umbrellas I would have surely regretted my lack of attention. The motto of the Boy Scouts is that we should always, “Be prepared” and truthfully, I wasn’t. There is surely a big truth to be learned here.
The storms of life can blow in and leave just as quickly as the storm that assailed my patio that afternoon. The other day a storm blew into my life. I didn’t see it coming and I learned that I probably wasn’t as well prepared as I should have been or thought I was. My bad. I read a story about a farmer who hired a young hand to help around the place. When he hired him, the young man said, “I can learn to do anything, and I can sleep when the wind blows.”
The farmer didn’t understand what the young man meant but he hired him anyway. Sometime later, a storm blew up in the middle of the night. The farmer tried to waken the young man but to no avail. He was somewhat put out but headed out to prepare for the storm. When he got to the barn yard, to his surprise, the wagon was covered, the barn secured, and all the animals safely put away. It was then that the farmer realized what the young man meant.
A wise person will do two things in preparation for the storms of life. First, live in a constant state of trust in the Master of the storms and always be prepared…no matter or regardless of what that means. The windstorm caught me off guard and so did the storm that blew into my life. I am hoping that I learned a little from both. Trust God because we can, no matter what, “He’s got this.” Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 