How do you weather the storms of this life?  There are lots of things that we do mentally an emotionally to get through them and they amazingly look like the same things that people do when a regular storm is coming.  Lets look at a few.

Evacuation.

Often when a big storm is on the way the authorities tell us to evacuate.  Get out of the path of the storm.  It makes a lot of sense because the storm can’t hurt  you if you are not in its path.  It also makes sense when you consider that stuff is just not as important as your life.  You can rebuild even after a devastating loss of your home and possessions.  Run away is a good battle plan when it comes to dealing with sin, but most of the time evacuation is a bad battle plan in most of life’s difficulties.  You see that is because the things you would abandon are too important.   What would happen if you quit your job every time the boss said something you didn’t like or criticized your work?  How would it work out in any of the key relationships in your life if you bail when the going gets tough?

Board Up the Windows

Another thing that people often do when a storm is coming is to board up the windows.  This is a good plan in a physical storm because one of the things that happens is that stuff flies around and it can blow right through your windows.   When the windows break then the rain and wind can get right to the interior of your house ruining everything it touches.  Once again, those in a storm in their personal lives often employ this strategy.  They put up boards over any way that people can impact them and they don’t let anyone in.  It does work. It keeps everything out from the vulnerable middle.   No hurts can get in and in isolation feel like you are safe. There is a problem with not letting anything in. Not only is the bad stuff kept out but the good stuff is too. The reality is you are not just protected but you are trapped inside. In addition, no one can see in. So while everything looks normal from the outside usually the storm is raging on the inside.  You don’t have any help and often no one even knows you are in trouble. 

While evacuating and boarding up the windows might be wise when it comes to physical storms,  a completely different strategy is called for in the middle of most of our life difficulties.  Rather than run away or bunker up, we should hold onto hope.  Not just any hope will do either; our hope must be in Christ.  Hope in Christ keeps us in place rather than run away.  We know that every storm can be conquered with Christ.  He is the one who calls to the weary and those without hope and gives us rest.  Hope in Christ speaks to attitudes that can change and forgiveness that can be delivered. In Christ any pain can be healed.  In physical storms there are places you can run away to where the storms are not.  In life storms there is no place like that. The evacuation centers from life storms are usually just band aids disguising as solutions.

 Hope in Christ also keeps us away from the self-defeating strategy of boarding up.  If our hope is in Christ then we don’t have to fear things coming in because our core will be secure no matter what. Yes bad things get in but we can deal with them and we can allow the good things in too.  We also don’t have to fear transparency because in Christ there is no condemnation rather there is forgiveness and restoration.  With our hope in Christ we can let the wind blow.

Peter was writing to a people for whom stroms were coming, and this week we will look at how we can put our hope in the grace of Jesus Christ.

See you at church.

Pastor Chris