Update Tuesday - The Inevitability of Storms

I have grown up on the Great Lakes.  While in Oakville, and now in Hamilton I have lived on Lake Ontario, I worked at a camp on Lake Eerie and five generations of my family have enjoyed summers at a cottage on Georgian Bay (a part of Lake Huron).  Just recently, I had the opportunity to visit Lake Superior on a cold, rainy, grey and ominous day.  As well as a love for the water, I have also developed a healthy appreciation for its power.  The thing about the Great Lakes is that they are huge, it looks more like looking out over the ocean than a lake, and when a storm comes in it can be ferocious.  I have only been caught on the water in one storm, and really only the beginning of a storm, but I can tell you that it was terrifying.  The combination of the driving wind and rains and the white caps that it produces can be awe inspiring.  Perhaps the most incredible things are the waves.  They waves are huge, they roll and rock back and forth and the grand heights are made that much more spectacular by the dramatic depths  to which the waters drop in between each cap.  From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a matter of seconds makes trying to ride out one of these storms exhilaratingly terrifying.

Jesus spoke of storms, using them as a metaphor for the challenges in life.  I have been looking at the parable of the wise and foolish builders in Matthew 7:24-27 as I prepare to preach in Milton next week.  I was struck by the inevitability of the storms; two builders, two homes but they both face the storm.  I was reminded again of the inevitability of storms in my own life recently, and like the waves produced by the gales of November on the great lake the call Gitchegumee (Lake Superior) I have seen the ups and downs.

Late October saw my family head out on a two day road trip to New York City where we had the awesome privilege of seeing my brother preform on Broadway in the hit music Once.  A few weeks later and we again took a road trip north to Sault Saint Marie Ontario where my daughter T.J. is shooting a film entitled A Masked Saint.  On this film she has had the privilege of working with such greats as Tony and Golden Globe winner Diahnn Carroll.  In between these highs, however, we have had a fairly dramatic low as my dad has just been diagnosed with esophageal cancer.  He has consultations with specialists this week to determine the best coarse of action.  So, we face another storm of sorts.  The history of our work here in Hamilton seems marked but such occurrences.  Liam's brain tumour that really began the journey that led us to Hamilton, our first year that saw two separate breast lump scares for Kim and T.J. (both thankfully were not cancer) and the subsequent struggle to find a doctor so we could address them and mental health issues that took up most of the previous two years.   We come to the close of another year with another health storm to weather.  We have learned much over the last few years, the least of which is not that God is good in everything.  He loves us and He is here with us.  It does not always feel like it, and I have not always recognized it day in and day out, but non the less, that is the truth.  We can take comfort in Him.

Towards the beginning Sermon on the Mount we have the call to let our light shine in the darkness that men might see our good deeds and give glory to the Father.  The teachings that follow are among the things that we do to let our light shine.  They are also the things we do to secure our building on the strong foundation to withstand the inevitable storms.   I am praying that we as a family, and as a ministry, continue to do those very things Jesus called us to do, and that our witness might be that much stronger by the ways in which we weather the storms.  We would appreciate your prayers in the days and months ahead.