I was talking to a man who has been effected deeply by Typhoon Yolanda. Yolanda is the biggest storm ever recorded to hit land. This storm hit last year, on November 8. The man’s name is Ehje, he is 19 years old. I was spending a lot of time with him for the last two days; he started asking me a lot about why I am a Christian and why I came to the Philippines. I shared with him my reasons, and he seemed astonished and encouraged by my reasoning.
He then started sharing his story with me. He began by stating that he has recently become a believer of God, and that before Yolanda hit, he was starting to question who God was. And then Yolanda hit. Devastation all over. Everything was wiped out. Ehje began to tell me everything he was feeling. He was in shock for the first 4 or 5 days. He was numb. He didn’t know what to think.
Ehje met a local pastor, and this man began explaining God’s love to Ehje. He explained who God is and talked about a strong love that God has for His people. This was the time that Ehje met the Lord. He ended his story with this, ‘I thank God for how He has used Typhoon Yolanda in my life. I would not know God without it.’
I was shocked at Ehje’s view of how God came into his life. Would I have this kind of view? Would I have that faith? I’ve ‘known’ God for about two years now, and I don’t know if I would be able to say that. I get caught up in all the little things, as I feel like we all do. But this is what I have learned, God will use one of the greatest natural disasters in the world to meet us. Our ultimate reason for creation was to be known by God and to know God; not for the comfort of the world.
Here’s the thing, we messed up the world. Our world, as we know it, is messed up because of the sin we brought. We should be thankful to God for wrecking the messed up world so He can show us how He created it to be.
I hope that as we live our lives, we are reminded of this truth. I hope we are constantly reminded that God will destroy our world as we know it in order so that we might meet Him, in order so that we might know Him better. I hope we do not get caught up in in things about God, but we get caught up in things of God. I hope that as we are placed in very uncomfortable positions in life, that we may know that God will meet us at those places.
What are you thankful for today? Are you thankful for the very thing that has destroyed everything you know, but actually brought you closer to Him?
