Floods Come in a Christian Life, Friends Help Us Bail Out
During most rainfalls, my house keeps me warm and dry. Though it is going on 150 years old, it is solid, well-built and reliable. It holds up well. That is, until a storm like Sunday’s. My state is on the world news for the past couple of days for an unfortunate reason. A monster storm cause terrible flooding in the area. Heavy rains washed a neighboring town out. My town flooded as well.
My house did not escape the water. After 10 inches of rain fell in three hours, our house gutters and drainage just could not keep up and the house started filling. My one-man bucket brigade could not put a dent in the river flowing into the basement. Though we had done hours of painstaking work inside and out to prevent this from happening, the sheer fury of the storm overwhelmed all the effort. The multiple systems we had in place failed and streams of water poured in everywhere. The rooms quickly filled with filthy nasty water. After I spent the day at church, this was the last thing I wanted to see upon arriving home. In my very tired state, it led me quickly to despair. All the hours of work done were gone and the water was rising rapidly. What hope did I have by myself to win this battle? I felt utterly exhausted and defeated and hadn’t even started working. I felt just hopeless.
Life Overwhelms Our Christian Defenses
No matter how good our church systems, spiritual disciplines and personal walk with the Lord, there are moments in our Christian life where we are overwhelmed. Satan’s onslaught is just too fierce. Life beats us sometimes. The tsunami of pain or temptation feels too large to fight on our own. We may have worked hard to overcome something in the past only to have it recur with a fury. We may have put all sorts of protections in place to avoid temptation, only to have them run over by the enemy. When the source is unexpected and it feels like hours of labor is brushed aside in a moment, it is all the more painful. We see our life filling with the foul muck of sinfulness and it feels impossible to fight against it. It is just coming at us too quickly and too powerfully. What do we do when all of our systems fail us and we just want to curl up in a ball and abandon hope? This is where Jesus’ people come into the story.
We Need Christians to Help Us Out of the Flood
I stood at the top of my basement steps staring at the rising water. I felt like weeping. I listened to the relentless downpour outside that showed no signs of stopping. I also heard what sounded like multiple open taps in the basement as water poured in through the foundation. “This is big trouble,” I thought. Then I heard a knock at the door. A friend from church just happened to come by unrelated to the basement. God was working. As soon as he found out my troubles, he rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a bucket and jumped into the dirty water with me. Within 30 minutes, another church friend trying to get home in the flooding got stuck near our house. God literally forced him to my doorstep in my time of need as well. He gladly jumped in the flood with us to lend a hand. One of them even brought a pump that was perfect for the situation. The three of us spent the next 5 hours working together against the flood. We first got the water to stop rising, then drained and then cleaned up the damage done. All the while, we talked about families, our walk with the Lord and how it was amazing how God delivered help in my time of need. Hundreds of gallons of water infiltration resulted in us marveling at God’s provision and joyous fellowship. It was actually fun.
The Church is Our Lifeline in the Flood of Life
This is how our family in the Lord can save us when we are floundering. They are our lifeline in the Lord. We all know times of testing are coming. Jesus was tempted, why would we be spared from the same? Life comes at us like a freight train at the worst of times. We can feel like it is impossible to stand against it. The flood of culture, promiscuity, depression, porn or any of the other ways that Satan attacks us threatens our life. It infects and begins to damage more of what we hold dear to us. This is when we desperately need to be part of an intentional community of Jesus people. To be part of those who seek to love each other like Jesus loves and are not afraid to get their hands dirty. We need those around us willing to roll up their sleeves and get into the filthy muck of our lives and help us. Sometimes it takes Godly counsel, prayer and even rebuking to stop the influx of sin. We all need help to start bailing out our lives and get cleaned up.
It is Not Good for a Christian Man to be Alone.
God knew what He was talking about when He said it is not good for man to be alone. On sunny days, life is more pleasant when you have good friends to hang out with and enjoy each other’s company. Praising Jesus in a company of saints is a picture of heaven. When the rain comes and the floods start rising, though, it is an absolute necessity. If we are to survive and thrive in our Christian lives, we need the Body of Christ’s help in our times of struggle. Just Moses needed Aaron and Hur to hold his arms up when he was weary in the midst of battle, we each need other Christians to pitch in on our behalf when we are falling.
If you are tired today and feel like the flood is winning, is there an Aaron you can reach out to lift you up?
Can you be Hur to a floundering sister or brother today?
Are you in position to have help when the inevitable flood arrives?
These are intentional choices that we make so that we can not only make it through the flood, but do so joyously and praising Jesus on the other side.
