Before Grace life is risky
He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters (Psalm 18:16)
Straining timbers creaked! Soaked sailors 'tortured'! Sails torn, control lost! All efforts failed. Land the only desire, death the only promise.
Fourteen days of just one relentless storm, sufficient to collapse the fittest, and the most positive quit of any hope.
When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. (Acts 27:20)
This Mediterranean nightmare is now 2000 years ago, yet such dark storms are repeated across countless lives each minute of each day.
Paradoxically hopelessness can produce its opposite.
As with the apostle Paul hopelessness proffers the first sign that God is about to turn up!
... and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.' (Acts 27:24)
Now I put out the welcome mat for God. Personal dependence ceases, God dependence begins. Finally rescue becomes possible from the humility that only impotence breeds. Otherwise, I am no more than a cork in the rough seas of life, holding on to a failing ability to rescue myself.
My inabilities are God's conduit so that His grace is able to flow into me. Grace opens heaven's gates.
My hopelessness is God seeking permission to quell my storms and me.