god’s safety

Running For Your Life

Posted on by Betsy

By the time you read this, Hurricane Helene will have made landfall in the Florida Big Bend area. It is forecast to be a major storm and my heart goes out to everyone in its path. A Florida weather person that I follow had to flee from his home as it gained strength and speed. I am sure that everyone who has evacuated is watching and waiting in dreadful anticipation as it approaches.

Have you ever had to run for your life? I’m guessing that with the exception of the military and first responders, most of us have never been confronted with a situation that was so life-and-death threatening that we literally had to run. I have run for the train, run for an elevator, I have evacuated my home during a Cat 5 hurricane warning, and even run a half marathon. But I consider myself blessed that I have never had to run for my life.

As a child, I had persistent dreams that I was in some life-threatening situation where I had to run, only to discover that my feet were cemented to the street. Have you had that dream? These dreams involved oncoming tornadoes, War of the World alien intruders, or some other terrible thing. When the threat appeared, I would look down at my feet and realize that I was stuck to the ground, unable to flee.

I think that while most of us have probably not been in any physical danger that would cause us to run, some of us may struggle with mental or emotional threats that leave us feeling paralyzed. I know a woman who is so paralyzed by her anxiety and subsequent paranoia that she has retreated to a place on the opposite coast from her family and cannot engage with them. Some fear tells her to keep running from any relationship with them. In her mind, even the smallest interaction would entangle and trap her.

Fears like this are as real to the person as an actual tornado coming down the street.

Our story today involves the great prophet Elijah at a time when he had to run for his life:

1 Kings 19 (Common English Bible)

19 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, how he had killed all Baal’s prophets with the sword. 2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this message: “May the gods do whatever they want to me if by this time tomorrow I haven’t made your life like the life of one of them.”

3 Elijah was terrified. He got up and ran for his life. He arrived at Beer-sheba in Judah and left his assistant there. 4 He himself went farther on into the desert a day’s journey. He finally sat down under a solitary broom bush. He longed for his own death: “It’s more than enough, Lord! Take my life because I’m no better than my ancestors.” 5 He lay down and slept under the solitary broom bush. 

Elijah did what we need to do when we feel threatened: He got to a safe place and called on the Lord. Even though he felt he was at the end of his life because of the enormity of this threat looming over him, he knew to first call on God. 

And God answered:

Then suddenly a messenger tapped him and said to him, “Get up! Eat something!” 6 Elijah opened his eyes and saw flatbread baked on glowing coals and a jar of water right by his head. He ate and drank, and then went back to sleep. 7 The Lord’s messenger returned a second time and tapped him. “Get up!” the messenger said. “Eat something, because you have a difficult road ahead of you.” 8 Elijah got up, ate and drank, and went refreshed by that food for forty days and nights until he arrived at Horeb, God’s mountain. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.

This story is a beautiful reminder that whenever we feel so threatened that we have to run, God is always there to provide safety, sustenance, and strength for the journey. Elijah received the ministrations of an angel and was given fresh baked flatbread and water … twice. God will provide what we need even in the worst circumstance if we remember to run toward him as we run away from the threat.

Are you running away from something? What are you running toward? When real threats come into your life, safety is the first concern. And remember that God is in every circumstance, running alongside of you until you reach safe harbor.

God is Our Safe Harbor by Michelle Robertson

Life Guarding

Posted on by Betsy

Memorial Day Weekend brings many things to the Outer Banks: tourists, traffic, revenue, beautiful beach days, and good times. On the Friday prior, it brings something else: the return of the Life Guard stands.

This acts as a catalyst for locals. When we see the stands coming out of storage from the beach houses and being erected, our pulse quickens. Summer is finally and officially here! Businesses prepare, restaurants shine up, rental agencies ready welcome packages, and I begin to pray.

The season we all depend on and wait all winter long to enjoy will bring another thing that we dread: ocean rescues. When we vacationed here before moving here, I used to get excited when I saw the Coast Guard helicopters flying overhead, until I realized they aren’t training…they are rescuing. I see the guard stands returning as a sure sign of summer, but now I see it with a sigh in my heart. Someone will lose his or her life here on our beach this summer.

The beach areas on the North Carolina coast are subject to undertows and rip tides that have a deadly force. Posted all along our beach accesses are signs with information on how to stay safe in the water. Unfortunately, many folks don’t read these as they trundle by with their arms laden with umbrellas, towels, shovels, and coolers. 80% of all ocean rescues involve getting swimmers out of rip tides.

HERE IS HOW TO SAVE YOURSELF FROM A RIP TIDE:

1. Don’t panic. Rip Tides are only about 20-100 feet wide. You can swim out of one.

2. Don’t swim directly to shore. When you feel the undertow pulling you out to sea, the urge will be to swim straight to shore. That will result in your being pulled out to sea.

3. Swim parallel to the beach. This will enable you to swim out of the current. Think of it like a treadmill that won’t turn off: you have to “step off the side” to get out of it.

4. If you are too exhausted, just relax and float. Tread water until the current dissipates, and then slowly make your way back, swimming parallel to the shore at an angle. Signal for help and wait for the Life Guard to come to you.

5. Learn how to spot rip tides. They look like disturbances in the wave line. They can be a flat and glossy break in the wave pattern, or a foamy one. While the waves come parallel to the shore line, rip currents run straight out to sea, cutting the wave in half.

We struggle with rip tides in life as well. There comes a time in everyone’s life when a rogue wave suddenly breaks on your shore, cuts you off at the knees, and threatens to sweep you out into the deep. Death, divorce, cancer, job loss, the discovery of a spouse’s betrayal … all the things that catch us off guard can feel like we are caught in an emotional current of foamy power, and we can’t even keep our heads up.

Psalm 46 (Common English Bible)

God is our refuge and strength,
    a help always near in times of great trouble.
2 That’s why we won’t be afraid when the world falls apart,
    when the mountains crumble into the center of the sea,
3     when its waters roar and rage,
    when the mountains shake because of its surging waves. Selah

4 There is a river whose streams gladden God’s city,
    the holiest dwelling of the Most High.
5 God is in that city. It will never crumble.
    God will help it when morning dawns.
6 Nations roar; kingdoms crumble.
    God utters his voice; the earth melts.
7 The Lord of heavenly forces is with us!
    The God of Jacob is our place of safety. Selah

8 Come, see the Lord’s deeds,
    what devastation he has imposed on the earth—
9     bringing wars to an end in every corner of the world,
    breaking the bow and shattering the spear,
        burning chariots with fire.

10 “That’s enough! Now know that I am God!
    I am exalted among all nations; I am exalted throughout the world!”

11 The Lord of heavenly forces is with us!
    The God of Jacob is our place of safety. 

But just like a real rip tide, with God’s help you can swim out of yours. Even if all you can do is tread water and float until rescue arrives, you can survive. The trick is to keep your head up. Stay focused on God’s activity in the midst of your panic. Keep praying toward heaven for help until it arrives. Lift your eyes upon Jesus and don’t look down.

No matter what it is you are floating in, God is with you. As big and frightening as your troubles are, they will not overwhelm you. You belong to God.

Rip Tide courtesy of NOAA