Calm In Wild Weather – Peace In Life’s Storms (Message December 2023) Series

CALM IN WILD WEATHER – PEACE IN LIFE’S STORMS (Message December 2023)

Who controls Nature? Is it some arbitrary force often personified as “Nature”, or is it climate change (if you are desperately seeking an answer), or is it some random series of happenings. It is none of these. The One who created the entire universe is the One who has His hand on every aspect of it. {{John 1:3 “All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”}} The Christian can accept that by faith, and rest in the assurance it gives.

This is one week before Christmas 2023, and I am composing this message on a faithful 2007 MacBook Pro laptop in darkness because we have no electricity, and even this laptop’s battery will run out soon. You see we just had a cyclone 5 days ago and we are suffering the results of it.

Great storms around the world go by many names - hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones, depending on where you live. These weather events can be among the most powerful forces in nature. These great disturbances in the weather pattern are caused when warm tropical air begins to rise causing a circular rotation of winds, anti-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

The cyclone we had was called Jasper and as far as strength goes, it was not a large one. It reached a category 2 on a 5 rating scale. This cyclone was supposed to come right in on us but then moved a little to the north and eventually came on the coast 100 kilometres north of us. Our homes in North Queensland are built with cyclone ratings that makes then a lot safer than homes built elsewhere. In fact they are built to withstand 150 km/h winds so they say.

Well it passed without too much fuss in my city but then did something unexpected. It was predicted by the Weather Bureau who often get predictions wrong most of the time, to keep travelling west as a tropical low and in a few days head off towards Darwin. That did not happen. It moved to the west for about 200 - 300 kilometres or thereabouts and parked itself there for days, and has remained stationary.

Rain, and more rain! In the last 5 days I have recorded 49.5 inches of rain (1250 mm) and it still rains and is supposed to for another one and a half days. Some places have had over 2 metres of rain (80 inches). (I am revising this a few days later. The rain has stopped). It is like living in north-east India or Bangla Desh or Assam. Rain has caused the city to be flooded and the whole coastal region is suffering from flooded areas. All coastal rivers are at major flood levels. My house has some problems but nothing like some people who have water in their homes and cave ins entering homes, and are being evacuated.

The water damage is immense. Highways have had sections just washed out, completely gone, by the raging torrents of waters, and sections of ranges have collapsed bringing large boulders and orange debris down over the roads. There is much more and you can see that if you search “flooding in far North Queensland”.

It is at times like that we have a whole mix of emotions, and it is the same for all of us, Christian and non-Christian. It is the same in any crisis or tragedy. People are called upon sometimes to face awful tragedies from medical diagnoses to receiving news of a family member being killed in a car accident. Returning home to find your house has been burgled or running from your home because it is being engulfed by fire are just two more examples. I know the list is endless and people suffer much.

The expression I used, “Christian and non-Christian,” might be equal for tragedy, but the understanding and support are different. We can put it this way. The Christian is like an oyster that is fastened to a rock but the non-Christian is like a jellyfish that just passes by because there is no stability to which it can anchor itself. That Rock of course that Christians are anchored to, is the Lord Jesus Christ who is our Rock of support.

{{Psalm 18:2 “THE LORD IS MY ROCK AND MY FORTRESS and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”}} David found that Rock to be his refuge many times and resorted to his God on every occasion the situation was too great for him. We have all seen in storms where items can be blown around in the wind. Lives are like that. They are carried by the winds in storms because the life has no solid basis, when isolated to itself.