At 4:10 am, on April 29, 1903, seventy to eighty million tonnes of rock slid off the face of Turtle Mountain, killing approximately 75 people and trapping many in the little town of Frank, Alberta. Amongst those trapped by the Frank slide were 17 miners who took 12 hours to dig out of their entombment. The elation of reaching daylight was short lived as their eyes adjusted and the panorama of their devastated town came into focus. These men were the last of the survivors to be found - that is until Charlie was discovered.
Cybersalt Shaker
The Cybersalt Shaker features devotionals and commentary written by Pastor Tim.
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Andrew Stawicki is always extremely and generously nice to me when we meet because I saved his life when he was shipwrecked in 1998. Really. Ok, technically it was Bob Bullen, a man who used to go to my church, Larry Davis, my dad, the US Coast Guard, and myself who helped rescue him.
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Recently, I found myself standing at my bedroom window, looking out at the results of a rare (for Victoria) freezing rainstorm. As I surveyed my backyard, I spied, with my little eye, a robin flying to land in our cherry tree. As the bird lit on an icy branch, it slipped and ended up hanging upside down ? its leg twisted and caught between two branches.
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Each night before I go to bed, a part of my evening ritual is to check to see if our dog needs her water bowl topped up. Though routine and mundane in nature, it is a spiritual experience for me because when watering our canine I often think of how blessed I am to live in a country, and a house, where a lowly dog drinks good old H2O that is clear, clean, and disease free. I know that it is not so for many humans in this world.
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As I write, we are experiencing record rainfall in British Columbia. One small village, 75 kilometers away, received just under 16 inches of precipitation in 24 hours. This great volume of water falling from above, and rising in streams, rivers and lakes, has one goal - to get in anywhere. And in trying to fulfill this goal, it splishes and splatters and drabs and drips, constantly looking for even just a crack to pass through. It is quite effective - around here if it was going to leak it is leaking now.
Like the rain, adversity and suffering are just as persistent in their effort to find a way in to put their cold, damp fingers upon the calm of our souls. They are always there, looking for a crack in our personal togetherness so they can upset the balance of our hearts. When they do make it, amongst the greatest confusion that they deliver can be a question - "Why did God let me come?" Part of the answer is "to show you where the cracks are."
It is quite common for Western Christians to go about as if everything is fine and that we are strong and self-sufficient. Like insulated and weatherproofed homes, we act like no storm of life can get in - unfortunately, keeping God out in the process (no matter how much we claim He is already in). God knocks on the door of our heart to have fellowship with us, but when we won't answer, that's when He let's trouble find its mark. Like tear gas makes barricaded fugitives cry for air, the flow of adversity and suffering into our beings makes us cry out for God and causes us to swing wide the door God is waiting at - that same door we fool heartedly thought we would open later when it suited us.
Whether you think you have need to or not, let it suit you to open the door of your heart to God now. For the first time, or another time, putting all your trust in Jesus alone is the only waterproof way to live the Christian life.