When Your Roof Caves In... And God is Still Good
The second crash came at shortly after 2:00 AM.
It was actually more of a wet ripping sound followed by an impact that I felt from across the house.
“Ah man…” I rubbed my eyes, sat up in bed, and swung my feet onto the floor.
I hadn’t really been sleeping anyway.
The first crash had come at 1:37 AM - I had stumbled from my bedroom into my home office to find that a four-foot section of sheet-rock had broken from the ceiling, spilling soaked pieces of dirty insulation onto the carpet.
I had been expecting this, but it affected me more deeply than I had anticipated - it felt a little like being punched in the stomach - but I had cleaned up what I could and felt my way back to my bedroom in the dark.
Twelve hours earlier, our city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, along with several other Midwestern cities, had been hit with a massive storm system that sat over our area for 40 minutes. Sustained winds had reached 112 miles per hour, and a large section of our roof had been torn off. Portions of the roof had eventually come to rest nearly twenty feet above the ground in one of our neighbors’ trees.
Thousands of large trees in the city and many of our electrical poles were uprooted or destroyed and all power and cell service in the city had been out since the storm. I suspected that it would probably be out for a very long time.
And now a second section of ceiling had fallen.
It looked like I wouldn’t be going back to sleep any time soon.
I was exhausted and overwhelmed, and I knew that it was only going to get worse.
Over the course of the night, a total of four large sections of our ceiling collapsed, leaving a clear view of the thin, flapping tarps that my son-in-law Pierre and I had attached to the roof in attempt to repel the rain as soon as the storm had begun to let up.
Shortly before sunrise, after hours of working frantically to clean and protect whatever I could, I realized that I was honestly, at the end of my own ability to cope with the situation in front of me.
I knew I needed to pray - to talk with God - and to ask… for help.
I staggered out of the house into a darkness lit with stars that were brighter than I had remembered ever seeing in the Iowa sky.
Part of my brain registered that the stars probably seemed brighter because I had never seen them without the competing light of the city , but a larger part of me just thought that they were beautiful.
I started to walk - somewhat aimlessly - following a familiar walkway that was now strewn with massive fallen trees.
“God, I’m not even sure what to say,” I shook my head, “I’m not really sure what to do, but please… just walk with me.”
And for the next few minutes, I just walked.
And Jesus walked with me.
I knew that He was holding me, sustaining me, and loving me.
And that was enough.
In Romans 8:28, the Bible says that “…all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” I knew that someday I would look back and acknowledge that God had used this challenging circumstance to create something beautiful, but I also knew that I was going to need strength for the days ahead.
And now God was giving me the strength I needed.
Because God is good.
All. The. Time.
We have watched Jesus bring life and freedom to thousands of people around the world, and we have personally experienced His love, peace, and covering in the midst of some truly challenging situations.
We have seen that Jesus is ready to walk with us through any storm, and we are more convinced than ever that He longs to bring freedom, forgiveness, and healing to those who desperately need it.
And this is why we do what we do.
More. Committed. Than. Ever.
2020 has been a year of incredible challenges, but we are more convinced than ever that Jesus is STILL the answer.
We've had to reschedule many of our upcoming outreaches (Zambia, India, and Haiti) until later in the year, but we're still committed to the goal of reaching as many people as possible in every nation with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.
We’ve also been using this time to create content designed to introduce people to the love and message of Jesus. This is the goal of every song, blog, podcast, and video that we produce, so please feel free to use our content as a resource if you know someone who needs to hear this message!
If you'd like to help us share the love of Jesus in 2020 with a tax-deductible monthly donation or a one-time gift, simply click the link below for more information. We're deeply thankful for you, friends!
THIS ONE MEANS A LOT TO US…
Our brand new music video is streaming now - COME BACK was filmed on two continents over the course of six months…