Weathering the storms of life
Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) with a parable everyone should heed. He says a man built his house and considering the good and bad times, the calms and the storms, he built it upon a rock. And when the wind blew, the waters rose and the floods came, it was able to survive the storms for he built on a firm foundation. Jesus then tells of another man who built his house on sand. The winds blew, the rains fell, the floods came and washed away that man’s home.
Aesop passed on a fable from ancient Greece that implied the same thing. He tells of three little piggies who went out to face the world. One built his house with straw, another with sticks and the other with bricks. When the wolves came, they easily destroyed the straw house and the house built with sticks. Children’s faces light up at the end of the fable. The last, wise pig built his house out of brick. The big bad wolf came and “huffed and puffed” trying to blow the house down. The wolf then climbed the roof and came down the chimney, only to find the wiser pig had built a fire under a boiling cauldron and the wolf fell in and the pig ate the wolf instead of the wolf eating the pig.
Jesus’ parable is not a “fable” but really true to life, to human nature and to preparing our lives to stand the test of storms, the wind and the rain and the floods we will face. Isaac, like many other hurricanes, has passed by a large hunk of this continent. TV and the news have shown the havoc caused. In our area we remember Hugo and in Florida they remember Andrew and in New Orleans they remember their city a disaster area not long ago and maybe again today.
To look at “the storms of life” in a positive way, we in South Carolina remember an early devastation of Myrtle Beach around 1950. Myrtle Beach had grown without good building codes or regulations and many buildings were like shacks that just happened. After a devastating hurricane, the leaders of Myrtle Beach — the “poor man’s Riviera” — decided on building codes that would require quality buildings. They laid out better designs and showed careful planning. A new Myrtle Beach arose which in many ways is the envy of all other resorts. It is a beautiful place to visit or to make a home now. The laws of the city help keep it clean and millions go there each year. The storms are not always a terrible disaster. It may be they are a wake up call that “we can do better!” We will all face storms in life, some physical, some financial. We need our lives built on a rock, on a solid foundation so we can withstand wind, rain and floods.
Tennessee Ernie Ford used to sing a song we all should heed. Here it is:
“When the storms of life are raging, stand by me, (repeat)
When the world is tossing me like a ship upon the sea
Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me.”
In the midst of tribulations, stand by me. (repeat)
When the hosts of Hell prevail and my strength begins to fail,
Thou who never lost a battle, stand by me.”