On a fun trip to Fort Myers, FL to visit some family, God taught me something about using hurricane shutters in our lives. Keep reading. This is good stuff.
How do you protect yourself from a hurricane? This is something that I honestly never thought about until living in Florida. Even now that I do live in Florida, I don't think about it often. Most hurricanes don't hit central Florida. Even with the potential of this past season's hurricane hitting central Florida, we still didn't prepare as much as others on the coast.
Austin and I went to visit some family in Fort Myers, FL this past weekend. Fort Myers is on the west coast of Florida. Our family lives on a golf course and it's a very nice development. We were on the golf cart riding around so we could see where they live. I was on the back of the golf cart and I was just looking around and taking it all in. I noticed a lot of houses had these metal looking shutters on them. Some were closed and some were open. I noticed that some houses even had a large metal door, almost like a garage door, where their front door is. Our uncle began to explain that the houses that have all the shutters closed are most likely people who come down to live only for the winter months, and that they're already gone for the year. He said they had to prepare their houses for hurricanes, which is why they have metal shutters and doors all over their house.
I had never thought of needing that before. Living in the midwest most of my life, I would've never in a million years thought about what people have to do to prepare for hurricanes. Even now when we leave our house for a trip, we don't have to close up our entire house. We just lock the door and leave.
Seeing all these hurricane shutters in place to protect people's homes got me thinking about my faith. How do I protect my heart? What barriers do I put in place to keep my heart set on Jesus?
Would my faith stand strong in the eye of the hurricane? Do I have hurricane shutters in place?
There are many things we can do to prepare for the hurricane. Worship, pray, read our Bibles. These things help us protect our hearts. They guide our hearts and remind us to always look to the Lord. They point us to Jesus.
Sometimes it can feel like the hurricane won't hit us. Our spouse won't cheat. Our family won't fall apart. Our house won't burn down. Our job is secure and we won't get fired. We won't have a miscarriage. We won't lose a child. We won't get evicted from our home. We won't be late on paying bills. We won't be homeless. These things can often feel like a hurricane in our lives.
During these hurricanes, we often question God. Why is He allowing this to happen? How could He let this happen? Doesn't He want good things for us?
Yes. He does. He wants good things for us.
Sometimes hurricanes aren't meant to destroy us. Sometimes they're meant to rattle us a little bit so that we are pointed back to God. They're meant to bring us closer to God. God doesn't give us more than we can handle. His plan will always prevail.
What are you doing today to prepare for the hurricane? Do you have your hurricane shutters ready? If God brought you a hurricane, would your faith still stand firm in His love?
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Stand strong in the hurricanes, friends! You will make it through.
- DKG
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