If you have read my blog before you know that I love to spend time at the ocean. My clarity for all things Jesus ramps up when I walk the shore. On many occasions I have stopped walking and stood fixated, staring at the ocean as the tide washed over my feet. I have gotten so lost in thought sometimes that when I look down, my feet and even my shins are covered in sand. I hadn’t moved but without even noticing I had sunk down in the shifting sand.

When Jesus was teaching many people on the mountainside, He told the parable of the wise and foolish builders. Matthew 7: 24-27NIV, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

We can all feel the rains coming down and the streams rising right now in the form the COVID-19 pandemic. I’ve seen and heard a lot of panic, fear, and anxiety in the last days. Perhaps most of that is because of the speculation of the unknown in the days to come. In the midst of this chaos and distraction there must be a constant that we can fix our eyes upon and rest in. Nothing takes Jesus Christ by surprise. Because He is God and stands outside of time, He saw this moment in history as He sat on that mountainside and spoke that parable out to the people. He was and is speaking it to us in March 2020. He has always had a plan and it has never waivered.

In His perfect wisdom and provision, Jesus always gives us a choice…. we can stand in shifting sands and build, or we can stand on the rock and build. Notice that in either choice the storms come. This present storm isn’t the first you will face and it won’t be the last. In John 16:33NIV, Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” I love that expression, “take heart!”. It isn’t an expression you hear very often, if ever, but what comes to my mind is an image of literally grabbing our heart – the center of our spirit, which resides inside Jesus’ heart – and choosing where to stand in the midst of the storm. He is standing right in the middle of the storm with His hand held out. Can you see Him? He is all wet and the wind is whipping His hair around but He has that beautiful, confident smile on His face like He doesn’t have a care in the world. “Grab your heart, little one, let’s go. Let’s get you up on that rock.”

Today, as every day, you have a choice. If you feel like you are sinking in shifting sands then you have stood still for too long and gotten distracted by fear and uncertainty. You are building in a place of your own flawed strength and the effects of the storm will penetrate your walls. Grab His hand and head to the safe space, with your feet on the rock of Him. His grace knows no bounds. There will ever be room on the rock for another. He will never tire of standing in the storm for you.

If you are already braving this storm on the rock and have built a fine house upon it, don’t just hunker down and ignore those who are lost in the sand and terrified. Turn all your lights on. Show people where the rock is, and if He calls you out into the storm with Him, go! Go rescue, go help, go pray, go pull someone’s feet out of the sand. Most every day I find myself exclaiming with a hearty laugh….. well, He is still bigger than I thought He was!!

We don’t know what tomorrow holds but Jesus does. We have the opportunity to know, that we know, that we know that He has not given us a spirit of fear and that He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow! Let’s be the one body of Christ and stand together on the rock. We will weather this storm and He will be glorified.