“O-o-o-h-h-h, it’s raining! Let’s go for a walk in the rain!” I was in uncharted waters here. We were on day three of our very short honeymoon following a brief 13-day courtship. Given the romantic inflection in Lynne’s voice, I unwisely gave a knee-jerk response. “No, no, no, no, no! That is not romantic to me.” We were in a rustic cabin on a lake in southern Michigan and I had just returned from my second tour in Vietnam. Walking in the rain was not on my list of ideal honeymoon activities. The rain in Vietnam was bad enough, but rain in southern Michigan in mid-May is some cold stuff. Somehow, we managed to weather our first marital storm in our new life together.

Just as we have nature’s storms to contend with, we also have storms in our spiritual lives. Facing nature’s storms is made easier when you have good equipment, and really good equipment is expensive. After moving to Houston, we discovered we live in a disaster-prone area. We’ve had hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. As someone who sold real estate for 22 years, I knew the right questions to ask when we were house hunting in Houston. Consequently, our home stood high and dry after Hurricane Harvey dumped as much as 65 inches of rain in parts of the city in August 2017.

Asking the right spiritual questions is a good idea if you want to weatherproof your spiritual life. No one is exempt from the storms of life. Scripture tells us God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45, ESV), and none of us are immune. In Isaiah, God promised a day would come when He would be “a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.” (Isaiah 4:6) I believe we are living in that day. If that is the case, where do we find shelter from the storm?

Jesus concluded His Sermon on the Mount with this admonition: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25) Jesus tells us everyone who “hears these words of mine and does them” will have a solid foundation and be secure from the storm.

The Apostle John tells us Jesus is the Word become flesh (John 1:14), so when Jesus talks about “these words of mine,” He is referring to the totality of Scripture. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) God’s Word is our “survival handbook” and is applicable to every situation we face in life.

I have accepted the fact I am going to end up walking in the rain, both in my spiritual life and my natural life. Those storms are going to test me to see if I can stand firm in the midst of them. The cost of my “spiritual bad weather insurance” was paid for by the Son of God at great expense. Because I seek to keep His words, I have this hope and assurance:

My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness,
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.

—“The Solid Rock,” Edward Mote and William Bradbury

What say ye, Man of Valor?
Semper Fidelis!