Monday Morning Memo: On Our Knees

I’m sure many of you have been glued to the television this past week as hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc in Texas and Louisiana.  It is so hard to wrap my head around what it would be like to experience such devastation.

Many people have lost everything they owned.  Their home, their car and some may not even have a job to go back to, since the hurricane also destroyed many businesses.  Families escaped with just the clothes they had on and some didn’t even have shoes.  They had no idea where they would go or how they would feed themselves and their children. 

Tragically, there were some who lost their lives as a result of this hurricane and so there are survivors who are now forced to deal with more than just material loss.  They now face a loss that no amount of money or government assistance will take care of…a loss of those they held dear.

In an instant, lives were forever changed.  Whether it was material loss and/or human loss, thousands of people are now dealing with a new normal that they didn’t expect or plan for.  I doubt there was anything that could have prepared them for what they have to now endure; this is new territory for all of them.

As I watched the news coverage this past week, I wondered how I would react if I suddenly lost everything.  It’s easy for me right now to say that I would be ok…that I would know that those things were just “stuff” and none of it was going to heaven or hell.  But the reason that it is so easy to say that now is because I’m still sitting in my home with all of my possessions around me.  Until I am faced with the loss, I have no way of knowing for sure how I would react.  As a result, I can’t begin to understand what those affected by this hurricane are going through because I have not walked in their shoes.

This past weekend we were driving and Mat Kearney’s song “Closer to Love” came on the radio.  In this song he says the phrase, “I guess we're all one phone call from our knees”, and when I heard those words I thought of how true they were.  None of us know what today will bring and in a moment’s notice we can receive a phone call, a diagnosis or be involved in an event that will take us to our knees as we seek divine intervention from our Lord.

When something unexpected happens, the key is knowing to whom we should turn.  None of us know how we will react when a life-changing event occurs, but if our first impulse is to fall on our knees in prayer, we are responding in the correct way.  We often hear it said that God won’t give us more than we can handle.  I disagree with that statement.  I believe that God won’t give us more than He and us can handle together.  With Him, all things are possible and when we turn to Him in our time of need, He promises to walk with us every step of the way as we go through the valley that is ahead of us.

I love Paul’s words in Ephesians 3:14-19, “When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.  Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.  Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

I don’t know what you are facing today or what you might face tomorrow…but thankfully God does.  You may not be experiencing an unexpected crisis at the moment, but if one occurs, remember there is no better place to begin than on your knees.  God has unlimited resources, unlimited power and wants you to understand how wide, how long, how high and how deep His love is for you.  If Paul understood the importance of being on his knees before God…I’m guessing it’s the best place for us to be too.