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“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
Psalm 19:14
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It rained yesterday; in fact, it poured. The entire Philadelphia area was under a flash flood warning. As I drove down route 202 in the early evening, I saw just how much it had rained. The traffic usually backs up around Route 29 in the evening rush hour, but last night, we were at a standstill in front of the Gateway Shopping Center in Wayne. We crawled along and then had to converge from 3 lanes into 1 because of the water that had collected across two lanes of the highway near Chesterbrook. A few brave souls drove through the lake in the middle lane, but no one braved the far right lane where the water had collected over a foot deep against the sound wall.
For those of us driving, this was just an inconvenience, but flash floods are nothing to minimize. I was reading recently that a flash flood with just six inches of mud and water can carry a car away. It doesn’t take a tsunami size wave to endanger life – just six inches of muddy water moving swiftly. We think, “oh, it’s just a little water,” and then, bam! The little stream sweeps our car off the road.
Isn’t life like that, sometimes? We think, “oh, I can get through this,” and then, bam! We get swept away by the life equivalent of six inches of muddy water. We need an anchor in the face of the flash floods of life; we need a rock to steady us and provide us safety when the muddy waters rush by.
“O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” When things are going well, it’s all too easy to forget about God, but when our life is in shambles, when the flash floods of health concerns or job loss or relationship issues strike, we need someone to be our rock and redeemer. I was able to avoid the deep water on the roadway, but in life we can’t always avoid the flash floods. They can strike without warning and sweep us away. But God will be our rock if we seek the Lord and anchor our lives on God’s steadfast love. Our faith community is an extension of that love, providing us with tangible signs of God’s love and care in times of need.
But we need to find that anchor before the storms strike, we need to develop our relationship with God when the sun is shining in order to be prepared for the flash floods that may come. Developing our relationship with God is something we can all do through spending time in God’s Word, Bible study, prayer and ministry. When we do that, when we have taken time to get to know God as the one who loves us, then we can be assured that no matter what life throws at us, God will remain with us as our rock in this life and our redeemer for all eternity.
Prayer: Loving God, help me to put my trust in you. Let me grow closer to you in the good times so that I will recognize your loving care in the flash floods of life. Be my rock; anchor my life in your love and law so that nothing can sweep me away from your presence. Amen.
With Words If Necessary 