the rains came down and the floods came up

So often it is in the teaching of our children that He reminds me of His simplest, most powerful truths.

Yesterday morning before church, it was breakfast devotions, as basic for Lily, Sofie and Nora as the song from Matthew 7.

If we put our security, faith, hope and trust in the sandy ways of the world, the knowledge and ability of man, our feelings and own strength and our own understanding...then when the rains and storms come--and they do--we will be a mess.

Washed away, insecure, fearful, despairing. When the country is locked down with rioting, burning roadblocks and food and fuel shortages, we will be unable to eat, unable to sleep, unable to peace, unable to pour, unable to encourage, unable to be a contributing part of the kingdom He's building.

If our house...our center...our security and being is built upon sand, when there are ginormous waves, we crumble.

But if our houses are truly built upon the Rock (the One who was there before and will be after) the rains come, the waves pound, the winds blow, and we are FIXED. We are loving one another well. We are doing the next right and righteous thing, come what may. We are living and breathing for His glory and in His hands...on our knees...but unshaken.

The Ayars, I don't believe, have ever been through such a storm as the last 6 months...physically, emotionally, spiritually.  And there have been places pounded that have been exposed as sandy, and He has been working with my heart to reinforce and rebuild those spots prone to panic, prone to worry, prone to fear, prone to control.

Through these months (really two years now) of seasons of violence, insecurity, lock-down, uncertainty, cancelled school, concern, and so many causes to despair, suddenly, bizarrely, the rest of the world is today experiencing many of those things, too.

Welcome.

Welcome to the uncomfortable exposure of the sandy places in our hearts and homes, that suddenly aren't holding up like we thought they would.

When worry for tomorrow is actually incredibly legit, does His Word still truly mean NOT TO...and that, with His help, it is possible not to worry, not to be afraid?? Matthew 6

When a total inability to plan is the frustrating pattern of the days, does His Word still mean that HE has a plan, a plan for hope and a future, that IS taking place and unable to be thwarted? Jeremiah 29

When overwhelming circumstances all around us threaten to seize the day and knock us senseless on the rocks, are we actually to be giving thanks in all circumstances? 1 Thessalonians 4

When the storm comes, are we realizing that our houses are genuinely built upon the Rock, or are we suddenly and unexpectedly surrounded by the tatters of what used to be our beautiful beach homes?

Whatever our circumstances are revealing about our foundations today, There is good news.

This season of storms in Haiti have been teaching me this.

There is good news.

God cannot be quarantined. 

God can actively rebuild in the middle of terrifying storms. 

He can (and wants to) rebuild weak places, stronger than they've ever been.

He can be TRUE to His Word even when we scatter like the rain.

God can be our Rock in these storms even in ways we never expected, even in horrors we never imagined, even in challenges we'll never have enough strength of our own to get through.

The basic question it all boils down to for me is always this:

Even this, even now, do I believe what He says to be true? 

Do I believe He is who He is?  

Do. I. Trust. Him?

Help my unbelief, I have cried, so many times, a million times through up to minutes ago.  

He is not going to help our sandy places. He is not going to strengthen our clutches on shifting idols or fallible strongholds.

He will, in His great kindness, allow them to be utterly wiped out and demolished, destroyed.  

But when we plant our foot of trust firmly upon Him and nothing else, I testify today that HE BUILDS. He grows us, He reinforces. He gifts us with His peace that passes understanding, with His courage that is needed for each day, with His love that is enduringly patient and kind and self-sacrificing.

As the storms hit again today--personally...locally...nationally....globally--they are finding our house far stronger than it once was. The storms are finding me already on my knees, unable to knock me down. 

The last two years for Haiti and ten years for some of the world and two weeks for everywhere may well physically be the time to hunker down.  

Humanly, this is the time man breaks. This is the time that gets ugly. This is the time to hold tightly, to grow small, this is the time to hide and fear and wither.  

But if we are in Christ and build our reality spiritually, not humanly, this is the time to blossom and GROW. This is the time He builds, this is the time He beautifies...this is the time He strengthens. 

This is the time He is who He IS. 

This is the time He means what He says. 

This is the time He is to be trusted.

This is the time to trust Him, the One and Only, the Before and After, the Beginning and the End.

We have grown greatly this past six months because we've been required to be SO incredibly dependent upon Him for our every breath and day and need...keeping our Bibles OUT and OPEN, keeping our knees down and calloused, keeping our eyes up and steady.

This is that time.  

May many search for Him in these storms, coming from the wreckage of sand castles, and may they find Him strong and alive and well in our unwavering homes of trust, built upon The Rock.