Rescued by the AMEN

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the rescue of two Florida teens in St. Augustine when the ocean’s strong currents pulled them two miles away from shore. Their faith in “God saves” was reassured when the captain of the yacht called “Amen” spotted them in the water when he was simply scanning the ocean for waves through his binoculars and heard their cries for help. High school senior, Tyler Smith, said, “We were just going to swim out to a small island we saw in the inlet. We thought, ‘That’s not far’. We’re athletes. No problem. We’re young teenagers. We don’t think about currents or anything like that. We’re like, ‘oh we can do this easy’, so we just swam out.”

The pair were stranded in the ocean for two hours (without life jackets) and were losing hope as the waves became rougher and the red buoy they were relying on as a point of reference and potential safety mark became out of reach. Tyler’s legs were cramping from swimming and treading water. Tyler said, “I started crying out to God, please send something, please send someone or some miracle to save us because I still want to see my family again.” That’s when it felt like a miracle occurred for the teens as a yacht, the AMEN, emerged about 200 yards from the desperate pair.

“At some point, it felt like it came out of nowhere. When I looked up I saw this big boat, I just had this feeling that I knew we were getting out of there,” Heather Brown said. She waved a stick she found in the water and started screaming as loud as she could. The Captain of the boat said, “Over the wind, waves, and engines, we thought we heard a desperate scream,” and we saw them.” Tyler said, recalling the memory, “"From us crying out to God, for Him to send someone for us to keep living and a boat named 'Amen,' there's no way that it wasn't Him," Tyler said.

Fear gripped the hearts of Christ’s disciples when the storms, the winds, and the waves came to them on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus saw them from afar and walked on the water to save them. (Matthew 14:22-33). Though this happened over 2,000 years ago, it is still relevant to us today, and particularly to those who need to be rescued. Maybe you are one of those who is paralyzed by fear that grips your heart about what tomorrow holds. That same fear may also be gripping those who are about to give up because matters have gotten worse and they fear for the loss of their marriage or their job or from a debilitating habit or illness or relationship breakdown.

Jesus still saves. Jesus – the same – yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) has the ability and wants to come walking on the water into all of our lives. His grace. His love. His mercy. He’s reaching out even now to RESCUE you and me from whatever fear or situation we are facing today. We're crying out for help, Lord Jesus. As you are reaching out to us with your arms of love, we are reaching out to you. Jesus saves. AMEN!

To Everything, There is a Season

On Sunday, I attended church in cool, Fall-like weather. In Florida, churches were closed because of Hurricane Irma fast approaching. I barbecued outdoors and served my family dinner and special cake for Alexia's 10th day leading up to her Sweet 16. In Florida, many families were dispersed to shelters, hunkered down in their homes or stayed with friends or families further North. On Sunday night, I watched the Dallas Cowboys play and beat the New York Giants (Yay) in between watching the 2018 Miss America Pageant where my kids, Ryan, Shawntel (1996 Miss America) and their two youngest boys were celebrating that wonderful organization that provides such outstanding scholarships for young women. I’ll admit my conscience was disturbed as I was having such a beautiful day, while people in storm areas didn’t even know if they’d have a home to go home to the next day, or if they did, they didn’t know when their electricity would be back on or have access to running water.

King Solomon (son of King David) wrote these words in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
~ a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
~ a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
~ a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
~ a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
~ a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
~ a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
~ a time to tear, and a time to sew; time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
~ a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

That list represents the seasons and the important matters of our lives. Some are happy times, others sad; some are productive while others seem wasteful; some inspire peace and others bring pain. But, all of them are necessary for us to learn, grow, and be resilient and determined to press through or coast through “the seasons”. Their appearance is not by accident. If we look closely enough, each experience reveals a loving, divine purpose that we can learn to trust God more.

I share this with you from experience. I’ve experienced most all of those seasons that King Solomon referred to, especially “a time to be born, and a time to die” Today marks the birthday of my precious husband. . I enjoyed many seasons with him before his graduation day to heaven. There were times of weeping, and there were times of laughing. I laugh a lot these days. My time for weeping was over. There was a time to mourn and a time to dance.

I know it’s difficult to fathom any good that can come out of the devastation and heartbreak that has been experienced in the recent hurricanes, fires, and earthquakes. We prayed for the Lord to push this storm away from land and out into the sea, but instead it ravaged so many homes and businesses.

I pray each day for God's protection over my family and nation. I'm sure you do the same. But, when our prayers seem unanswered, how can we continue trusting the One to whom we pray? First of all, it's when our prayers seem unanswered that we MOST NEED to trust Him.

Today it may not feel like there is much hope on the horizon for an expeditious way out of our circumstances. The passage from here to there may seem like a dark and endless tunnel, but I assure you, one day, we’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel and we’ll realize the gifts we received during these days. If we remember that there is a gift in every crisis or challenge -- in every transition of life -- we will be able to go with the flow more easily. As we discover the gift in every season, we learn to trust that loving, divine purpose behind it. Then the current of life can carry us off to new adventures, more rewarding and exciting than any we may have chosen on our own.

Yesterday I spoke about “The Eye of the Storm”. If we respond to each storm and each season from the “eye” of God's presence within, where perfect peace and wisdom dwell, we will emerge even stronger, wiser, and freer than before. We may even morph into a beautiful, free butterfly for the first time because of the inner workings of God in our lives. Lord, please give us grace for every season so we can spread our wings and fly!