just CLINGING ON
Sometimes it seems that your faith is hanging on by a thread as life falls apart – a spouse deserts you, an illness is diagnosed, a loved one dies. It can be as sudden as one of those tragedies that hits you out of the blue or it can be a sustained ‘East Wind’ prevailing against you – lack of support from church, loneliness in your faith, depression.
Despite strong roots, a tree can be bent sideways by prevailing winds – and yet, they can still hold on. A limpet will cling on, but one sudden tap from a seagull when it’s not prepared and it’s history. If you’re reading this, you may identify more with the tree than the limpet. God seems to allow ‘prevailing winds’ into our lives of many sundry kinds but they do shape us. Take Jacob – using sleight of hand to deceive he was always on the move, suffering family traumas and personal insecurity, he learnt to sleep using a rock as a pillow!