The Unrelenting Storm

By: Randal Myers

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It's great to be back in town following a trip back to Alabama and to the panhandle of Florida . It was good to see friends and family, participate in a wedding and take a few days of vacation. But boy, are we tired of being gone. I'm really looking forward to replacing the frantic schedule of the past week of being away with our normal frantic schedule back home in Lakeland!

One of the things we do this time of year is join Paige's family for a few days at the beach in Panama City. We've made this trip for the past 10 or 11 years and it is always fun to kick back, relax, swim, play cards, fish, etc. Every year seems to bring with it a new adventure or two.

This year was no exception in the ìnew adventureî category. Enter Hurricane Dennis. We, along with all of Florida, kept close watch over this approaching storm as it threatened an already beaten up coastline. Our original plan was to head to the beach near Panama City after our friends' wedding on Saturday afternoon. But with the hurricane path still uncertain, we thought it best to remain in the Montgomery area to see what would transpire. Fortunately for us, though not so fortunate for those slightly to the west, Dennis spared the Panama City area of its heaviest attack, and by Monday we were headed to our beach destination.

"It rarely is a single blow that brings us down."

Within an hour of arrival, I headed for the Dan Russell Pier which is a state-owned facility that provides some really good fishing in the gulf. I had my rods and other fishing tackle and was interested to see if the hurricane winds had brought in some good schools of fish. I was very surprised to find that not only was the pier closed...a good portion of it was missing! The Dan Russell Pier is a relatively newly designed concrete pier with huge pilings for support, yet the last hundred yards or so was severely damaged and much of it, including the forty yard wide ìTî section at the end had completely disappeared. With the comparatively little damage to the Panama City Beach area, what could have caused the destruction of this massive structure? To look at it in its original form, you would think it to be indestructible. Obviously it wasn't.

What caused the pier's demise? A single strong wind? A big wave? Maybe an encounter with an unlucky boat? None of these. What caused the pier to collapse was the constant pounding of the surf and its undermining of the foundation beneath the surface.

That which caused the destruction of the Dan Russell Pier illustrates a danger we all must consider in our spiritual lives. It rarely is a single blow that brings us down. It is Satan's constant pounding that eventually take its toll. The Bible warns, ìSo, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" (1 Corinthians 10:12). Satan doesn't often go for the one time knock-out punch but rather chooses to constantly pound away at us with temptations, with disappointments, with conflicts, and frustrations. He attacks subtly with self esteem issues, with anxiety, discontent and unmet needs. It's the continuous wear that weakens our foundations and diminishes our capacity to stand firm.

Our best defense is a strong offense. We must take the initiative to access our Source daily, to build up our immune system, to grow spiritually so as to not be easy targets through fleshly desires. One thing is for sure; although we might have weathered the last storm, there will always be another one brewing. There's always another threat coming our way both in the weather and in dealing with the Enemy. We must certainly expect unrelenting storms in life...but we have unparalleled power to overcome them. Stay connected!

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