The first hurricane I was in made me think of that three little pigs story. It also made me think of the wolf, “I’ll huff, I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down.”
I was serving a mission in Mexico, near Puerta Vallarta in a small coastal town called San Blas. As missionaries, news was scarce, and we didn’t get word of the storm until it was almost too late. At the time the hurricane was moving into where we were on the coast. We listened to the local station go off the air because the water was coming into the station. We tried to sleep but the wind was howling and the rain was pummeling the house. The next morning we went out and we surveyed what had happened. The power was out. The trees and wires were down. There was some minor damage in the town plaza. We had to wash and flush using the water we had stored in the bathtub before the hurricane hit. We ate by candlelight and made our visits through knee high water and ankle high mud.
Though the storm had beaten up everything around us, the things that really mattered were safe. Psalm 91:1 tells us, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” It goes on then to say in verse four, “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler (Verses nine and ten), “Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.”
In recent weeks, we have had the hurricane blowing against our lives - there’s the night terror and the flying arrows - stalking pestilence; but, the Lord says very clearly that it will not come near us. He says, “If we make the Most High your dwelling, it will not befall us. No disaster will come near our tent”. It sounds like our night in a hurricane - everything around us being blown around but the core is safe.
The Core – it’s our relationship with the Savior; our relationship with our family; our central mission. The wind outside may be doing a lot of damage. The adversary is nibbling around the core. It’s important during a hurricane to see the difference between the core and the non-core things. We pray for protection on the core of our lives. It will pass. We need to guard carefully the priorities that keep the core things healthy. Regardless of what may be happening in the present, we can’t let the hurricane blow us away from those priorities. We may live in troubled times, but the times will get better.
Nephi of old taught us that, “this land shall be a land of liberty…I will fortify this land against all other nations” (2 Nephi 10:11-12, read verses 10-16). Hurricanes may blow, rain on and flood our lives, but we can rest assured that we are under the watchful eye of a supreme protector.
Brent M. Williams is an Information Design Manager and Instructional Designer, for Indy Interactive in Orem, Utah. He lives in Payson, Utah, where he serves as Valiant 10 teacher in Primary. Home Teaching is a MUST!
Posted by John in Miscellaneous Articles