Playing Through
Doing battle with a twenty-two-knot wind! It’s what a Lieutenant Colonel from the Special Forces Group Airborne found himself doing after parachuting from a helicopter over a drop zone inside Camp Dawson, West Virginia. This 25 mph storm force drove the Lieutenant Colonel, like so much laundry put out to dry, onto a nearby golf course.
On landing the Green Beret fumbled for the release but another gust drove the chute and its struggling captive down the fairway. Three now very attentive golfers about to tee off shouted, “Can we help you soldier?” Sliding by them the officer clung to his sense of humor as well as his paratrooper pride. “No, thanks,” he called out. “I’ll just play through.”
When life’s winds gust, and they will, how exactly do you “play through” to the glory of God? Well, here are two soul steadying reminders from Psalm 46. By the way, why not memorize this fortress Psalm? These Spirit-given words from the Sons of Korah can make you fearless in living for the LORD irrespective of any storm.
1. DECLARE TRUST IN THE LORD AS YOUR PROTECTOR.
“God is our refuge and strength an ever present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
When you feel gale force winds have made everything uncertain and when mountains might crash into your sea we first remember our protection is not in better circumstances. Our refuge ultimately is not in avoiding problems or for that matter anything on this earth. Instead, our protection is the very present Holy Spirit and the rock-solid work of Jesus on our behalf to save us and make us his own. He died for us. He rose for us. By God-given faith in Jesus we are guaranteed God himself is always our safe place. After all, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:22)?
Now trusting, that is different than just believing that, right? Uncle Oscar was apprehensive about his first airplane ride. His friends, eager to hear how it went, asked if he enjoyed the flight. “Well,” bellered Uncle Oscar, “it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, but I’ll tell you this. I sure never did put all my weight down!”
Ole’ Uncle Oscar never actually trusted his seat. The very thing that would help his flight be enjoyable no matter how strong the winds he just couldn’t lean fully on. Are you trusting your seat? Are you? Declare your trust in Jesus in the wind and then, for heaven’s sake, sit down. He actually is present in your present you know. He’s got this. Be still and know he is your protector.
2. DELIGHT IN THE RIVER OF THE LORD’S PRESENCE.
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells”
(Psalm 46:4).
Have you noticed? We love to catastrophize when gale-force winds strike. Surely the worst scenario is going to happen. The cancer won’t be cured. The insurance won’t cover it. Another job won’t be found. She won’t forgive me and if she does surely it will never be the same. Maybe the LORD has forsaken me? If we are not careful we become the wet blanket in the linen closet of life and we even doubt the very promise of God to never leave us or forsake us.
But the Psalmist says, “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God …” (Psalm 46:4a). The city of God is undoubtedly you, believers of all time in Christ, and me. But what is the river? Even in Jerusalem back when God inspired this Psalm to be penned there was no river in Jerusalem. Egypt had the Nile, Babylon had the Tigris and the Euphrates, but Jerusalem had only the trickling Spring of Gihon connected to the Pool of Siloam. Not much too really delight in.
As many scholars suggest the river of God, I believe, is his very presence to us. Twice the Psalmist assures us, both in verse 7 and 11 of Psalm 46, “The LORD Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress” (Psalm 46:7). The God of the Angel Armies is the “with us God” - always. We really do live every moment of our lives in the warm arms of a fully loving, all knowing, all competent God. Recalling this in the storms of life often teaches us to play through for the glory of God by finding our true joy in him. As the late Ben Patterson said, “Adversity teaches us to ask the right questions, ‘What is the deepest root of our joy? What God gives to us? Or what God is to us?’” Genuinely believe “the river of delights” for you in any storm is the LORD himself and you will be amazed at how the Spirit inspires in you faith based optimism in the LORD to play on through the storms of life to his greater glory.
Permit a new twist on an old story. A young man applied for a job as a farmhand in Bridge Creek, Oklahoma. When the farmer asked for his qualifications, he said, “Man - I can sleep when the wind blows. I can sleep when the wind blows.” This puzzled the farmer. But he liked the young man and hired him.
A few days later, the farmer and his wife were awakened in the night by a violent storm. They quickly began to check things out to see if all was secure. They found that the shutters of the farmhouse had been securely fastened. A good supply of logs had been set next to the fireplace. The young man slept on like a winter black bear.
The farmer and his wife then inspected their property. They found that the farm tools had been placed in the storage shed, safe from the elements. The barn was properly locked. Even the animals were calm and tied down. All was well.
The farmer then thought he understood the meaning of the young man’s words, “I can sleep when the wind blows.” Because the farmhand did his work loyally and faithfully when the skies were clear, he was prepared for the storm when it broke. So when the wind blew, he was not afraid. He could sleep in peace.
So the farmer asked him about it the next morning, “Son, you can sleep when the wind blows because you’re faithful in your work, no?” The young man laughed, “Nah, no matter how faithful I am I can’t stop the force of a bad wind and you know how bad they can get in the Sooner State. ‘O-o-o-oklahoma where the wind comes kick’n in your door,’ he sang.”
“No sir, I can sleep when the wind blows because, God, God is my ever protecting safe place and my ever present river of delight. Believe that with all my heart I do. So I pillow my head and sleep well fully prepared to play through the next day by his grace either here or in heaven.” Jesus give you the same kind of faith, my friend, a faith that says, “I can sleep well when the wind blows.”
