One day while I was playing golf with my dad, the most amazing thing happened. Here’s the short version.
I was 15 when our Minister of Music, Buddy Earwood — along with a friend named Teddy, my dad, and I — went to play golf in a community near my hometown. Our round of golf was going along just fine when one of those North Mississippi summer thunderstorms came out of nowhere to interrupt us. We found cover in a fiberglass, lawn-equipment shed, determined to wait out the storm and then finish playing when it was over.
Just as suddenly as the storm came up, in intensified. I remember seeing the flagstick of the nearest green bent in two by the powerful winds hitting the course. Pretty soon tree limbs and other debris started hitting the shed and my dad said, “We’d better lie down on the ground.” The sound got louder and louder as the wind grew stronger by the second. Brother Buddy was on one knee singing, “How Great Thou Art.” Teddy, a grown man, was now crying in fear, almost in a panic. My dad had one arm around me and the other arm around the corner post of the shed. And just as quickly as it came, we saw the funnel cloud go right over our heads and quickly move on through the field next to the golf course.
When we walked back to the clubhouse we saw men looking at the flattened structure above the basement where they had ridden out the tornado. When they saw us walking up the fairway, they looked as though they were seeing ghosts! They couldn’t believe how we had survived the tornado while on the course. That maintenance shed saved our lives! I’ve relived the experience many times with the realization that God protected us that day in a powerful way.
In many respects we are living in a time when people are desperately looking for a place to ride out the storms of our culture with all its moral, economic, political, and social whirlwinds. I’m so grateful that God has given us such a place.
Psalm 27:5 says, “For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock.”
He is our shelter! No matter how hard the winds may blow or how much debris comes against our shelter, we are safe in the cleft of His rock. My prayer for you is that no matter the storm you may be facing in your family, your church, your community, or in your own life, you will find shelter in the unchanging God we serve. Run to His Word and cry out to Him in prayer. He said He would never leave you nor forsake you. Don’t doubt that now!
Rest in His shelter. He will bring you through.
Mike Harland
Director, LifeWay Worship
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