Hello,
In case any of you were wondering, I am still here.
The cause for your wonderment may be you heard of the weather that
stormed through here last week.
Monday night at 11:00, I did what I do every night. I roused my dog from his sleep to take
him outside for him to do his business.
When we opened the door and stepped out into the dark I was amazed at
what a beautiful night it was: still and warm. With his business done, we came back inside and made our way
to the kitchen to get the mandatory dog treat. When I reached into the cookie jar to get the dog treat, my
eye caught the reading on our anemometer monitor; 2 miles per hour
wind speed.
Duty done, I resumed my seat in front of the TV to watch the basketball
game that was going on. My
watching, however, was interrupted by what sounded like a commercial jet
landing in my back yard. The wind
had suddenly kicked up as a cold front was making its way through. The roar went on and on, rattling my
windows and shaking my house. It
shook my house to the point that there were waves in the water in my toilet…not
whitecaps, but waves. At midnight
when I turned myself in for the night I decided to take a look at the
anemometer monitor to find out what assault of wind my house was taking. Forty-six miles per
hour…sustained. I stood that at
that monitor for several minutes and the monitor didn’t change: forty-six miles
per hour. For at least an hour the
wind attacked my house at forty-six miles per hour.
And I am still here.
We knew when we built our house that
this would be a windy location.
So, we secured the walls of our house to the foundation with hurricane
straps. The shingles on our roof
are one level below hurricane grade.
The windows are heavy duty, and the siding is well secured. Our foundation is firmly set upon the
rock beneath it.
Thus, I am still here.
You don’t have to live on the top of a hill in Western Pennsylvania to
experience what I did this past week.
I believe I can say with certainty that all of us have had the same
happen to us no matter where we live.
Haven’t we all stepped out into the darkness of our lives to be greeted
with balmy weather….you know…things are peaceful with the people we care about
the most, things seem calm at work, gentle breezes waft us into the
morrow. When all of the sudden the
weather takes a turn: winds erupt with death, blizzards attack with failures,
the mess that you have made of your life thunders all around you. It has happened to me.
And I am still here.
I know that this life is a windy life, and so I have taken the words of
Jesus to heart.
24 ‘Everyone then who hears
these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his
house on rock. 25The rain fell, the floods came, and
the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been
founded on rock. 26And everyone who hears these words
of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house
on sand. 27The rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its
fall!’
In the waters of Baptism, God christened me with a promise, a promise of
unconditional and indestructible love and mercy, and within that love and mercy
God has staked out a place for me to build my life, and so I have. There have been other plots with
inviting vistas and views that grabbed my attention, but there is something
about this plot of God’s grace that has held me here….held me here when life’s
weather has been still and warm…and even when the fronts charge through…when
the rain falls, the floods come, and the winds blow and beat on my house it
holds me…and see…
I am still here.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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