Find Something Sturdy

I love disaster movies. It all started with the Poisden Adventure back when I was young. The movie about an upside down ship and the survivors have to fight their way through to save themselves before drowning with the ship. I love movies like that. I love watching people fight their way out of difficult situations. People fighting the odds, working their way through extreme problems and then making it through. Conquering heros. I absolutely love that.

I just went and saw the movie “San Andreas,” this past week. The basic premise of the movie is California has massive earthquakes up and down the San Andreas fault, flattening towns, toppling buildings, causing explosions and fires, and basically totalling EVERYTHING. This divorced couple has to fight their way up to San Francisco to find their daughter. There was one line in the movie that gave me goosebumps. The hero of the movie answers a lady, after he directed them to a safe place so they wouldn’t get hurt. He said, “You have to get up against something sturdy to protect yourself.”

I immediately thought of God. “You have to get up against something sturdy to protect yourself.” Isn’t that true? We have to get up against something sturdy to protect ourselves. Because those storms will come. Those disasters will happen. The rug is going to be ripped out from underneath you. And you better be prepared. You better be up against something sturdy to protect yourself.

Isn’t God the most sturdy Person we know? His love is unfailing. He is all powerful. He is all knowing. He is everywhere at all times. He is loving. He’s  been through a major crisis Himself. God sent His only Son down to earth TO BE KILLED. His son was sent down here to die. It wasn’t going to be an easy death either. He was to be crucified. Before His crucifixion, He was to be beaten so badly, He would be beyond recognition. His back would be basically shredded to ribbons. Then, He would carry His cross, that would be His place to die, upon His back. The crucifixion would be more brutality. Talk about a cruel way to die. The Romans would nail his hands and feet to the cross. He would hang on the cross until He died. Before All of this, He would be mocked, spat upon, and a crown of gnarly thorns placed on His head. Jesus knew what He had to do. He even asked to have “this cup taken from me.” However, in obedience to God, Jesus took it all. AND then He rose from the dead. He…rose…from…the…dead!

I would say God is “something sturdy” we can “get up against.” He asks us to “get up against” Him.

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you,” 1 Peter 5:7

“Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken,” Psalms 55:22

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” Matthew 11:29-30

Those are just a few favorite verses of mine that comfort me in times of trouble and show me that God is sturdy and I can get up against Him. He WILL hold me up. He WILL sustain me. He WILL take care of me. God IS good. And the best part of all, He IS very sturdy, we can get up against Him. When those storms come. When the earthquakes happen, we have God to get up against, to protect us.

I don’t know what I would do without God. What do people do when the world explodes, when tragedy strikes, when they experience incredible loss? What do they do? Without God what does the non believer lean up against? Nobody skates through life without pain and suffering.

If God has been through suffering Himself. If God has the power to raise the dead back to life. He is definitely sturdy enough for us to get up against. He is our rock. He is our salvation.

Not only that, but He asks us to cast our cares upon us. He tells us to take His yoke upon us. Do you know what that means? I have a picture of two oxen stuck together with a wooden yoke. I saw them at the fair once. This farmer was explaining the oxen and their yoke. They have more power when they are yoked together. They also train the young oxen by yoking them with the old oxen. God is saying He’s the old oxen, we don’t have to fight through life, He will bear it for us.

So ” get up against something sturdy.” Get up against God. He will sustain you. He will carry you through ANYTHING!