[Music] new [Music] [Music] couple years ago I was with my family and we were spending some time uh in this Cabin in the Woods on the edge of this remote Lake and I mean we were deep in the middle of nowhere and one morning uh my son trace and I we woke up and set out to take a walk around the lake it was one of those mornings like not a cloud in the sky and then the birds are singing and my son Trace he's about a little over a year old at the time and
so he's making all these little chirps and squawks that one-year-old boys make and I had him in one of those hiking backpacks where he rode back here so as I walk along I can hear him making all his noises and so we head out through the woods to walk around the lake and it's just one of those you ever had those moments like if you could just freeze them just so beautiful and we get to the other side of the lake and we're exactly at the halfway point with the farthest possible point from the cabin
and we're rounding the bend to head back and I look up and I notice clouds and and then it starts to rain it always rains doesn't it it's interesting because the scriptures say all sorts of things about rain and storms when Jesus is teaching about what it means to live like the fullness of life in his kingdom when Jesus speaks of it he speaks of two different people he speaks of a person who builds their house on Sand someone who chooses to reject his teachings and someone one who builds their life their house on Rock
who chooses to build their life on Jesus teachings and and then the metaphor he uses is that of a storm that comes and the person who rejects his teachings and his truth essentially the house built on Sand just gets destroyed but the house is built on Rock stands so this idea Jesus says when the rains come it's not like they might they do it rains in our lives a lot at first there's a drop here and a drop there and so I put trace's Hood over his head but what I didn't know was that he
pulled it off and so gradually the drops they get bigger and bigger and they fall faster and faster and in no time it is pouring I mean the kind of the kind of rain that just soaks it plasters your hair against your head and the kind that just drenches your clothing and at first trace the Thunder and the lightning he's okay but as it picks up and it gets louder and louder and the wind becomes more intense and the trees start to shake Trace becomes more and more agitated I can feel him like on my
back and at first he starts to whimper and then he he lets out kind of a little shout here and there but in no time Trace is shrieking at the top of his lungs I mean the wind is blowing it's thunder and lightning and we are just getting plastered with this heavy rain and the trees are no longer providing any shelter and Trace just from like deep in his being starts to yell and cry so loudly and with such passion and Terror in his voice it's interesting because if you think like the word cry and
you search the scriptures you find this word comes up over and over again like even the book of Psalms just the book of Psalms if you're like start reading through it speaks over and over and over again of crying of crying out to God and God says these amazing things like he says when you cry out to me I listen he even says I cannot ignore the Cry of somebody who's Afflicted it's like if I'm hurting lost soaking wet scared confused God says you cry out and I hear God even says that when you cry
he's close to the Brokenhearted he's close to those who cry out and admit they're scared lost soaking wet and Confused see there is this false Twisted idea out there among religious people that somehow you got to have it all together to have a relationship with God God that like somehow God's only looking for people who have no problems and have it all nailed down and can put on like the happy face all the time and yet the scriptures speak directly against this kind of thinking I mean Jesus is even just straight ahead and he says
come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden I mean the essence of Salvation is crying out to God and admitting I don't have it all together it's admitting I am lost I am hurting and this sinful nature that I carry around with me has really screwed things up for me and God if you don't show me the way home if you don't fix things if you don't step in I am dying here and this church this kind of thinking is all throughout the scriptures it's over and over again God says to us
when you come to me you come to me with all your junk come to me with your problems come to me all screwed up all messed up let me take care of it Jesus even sets out looking for people he even says this he says I'm not looking for the healthy I came for the sick it's interesting if you think about the storm from trace's perspective for trace the storm is his reality he sees nothing else the lightning and the Thunder and the trees swaying and the raindrops and the water just dripping off him it's
all he knows he sees no reality Beyond this storm what Trace doesn't realize is that as his dad I would do anything to get him [Music] home down come and heal these SW and wash them clean come [Music] and soul so at this point tra is shrieking at the top of his lungs in Stereo right behind my head and I stop and I kneel down and I take him out of the pack and I pull him close to my chest and I wrap my arms around him and I hold him so tightly up against my
heart and for the last mile of our walk the entire time I bend over and I whisper into his ear over and over again I love you buddy we're going to make it dad knows the way home we're going to make it I love you buddy and over and over and over again through the storm I carry him home clutched tightly against my chest Whispering I love you buddy we're going to make it now imagine if like years later Trac is in therapy or something and he drags up this repressed memory of the walk and
he comes to me and he's like Dad what'd you let me go through that for I got all this junk inside me what did you I thought you love me how could you have exposed me to something that horrible that storm I mean why didn't you protect me I would be crushed because for me that walk was one of my deepest most intimate memories of my life with my son I wouldn't trade that experience for anything maybe you're bitter or you got all this anger inside because of some things you've been through some storms in
your life you're wondering if he really loved me if God really was there he wouldn't have let me go through that and maybe God is saying no don't you understand I got to hold you tight and I got to remind you over and over again I love you buddy as it says in the scriptures the book of Deuteronomy chapter 1 God's reminding his people of how good he's been to them he says remember I carried you like a father carries a son and now may you when you're soaking wet lost hurting and Confused may you
cry out and may the creator of the universe take you out of your path may he hold you tight up against his his chest may he wrap his eternal loving arms around you and may you hear him whisper I love you buddy we're going to make it dad knows the way home we're going to make it I love [Music] you [Music] oh
