“You rule the raging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.” (Psalm 89:9)
Lately my life has been a raging sea, one difficulty after another. So when I lost my wallet yesterday I wasn’t surprised. Good news is it was practically empty—no cash, one credit card, a keepsake $2 bill, and a N.C. driver’s license I had planned to carry till 2016. Still, I was pretty bummed. I mean what a hassle to lose your wallet, right? Replacing all that stuff? But the greatest loss for me was the wallet itself—a gift from my youngest son, Phillip. I knew I had to find it.
“Lord,” I prayed. “Please help me.”
After checking the car, my pants pockets, and searching the entire house, I sat down and retraced my steps. “Okay,” I muttered. “You left the office, went by the station for gas, drove home…hey, wait a minute,” I exclaimed. “That’s it! I was talking on the phone while pumping gas. I must have set it down on the back of the car.”
I drove back to the BP station and searched the lot…nothing. I went inside and asked the clerk, checked the road out front, even the on-ramp back onto the freeway…still nothing. By the time I got home my head was spinning. I couldn’t think straight. I searched the house and car one more time just in case, and then finally accepted the fact that my wallet was gone. Another wave had crashed down on my head. “God,” I whispered. “What are you trying to teach me?”
Well this morning I found my answer in the Book of Psalms. “You rule the surging sea,” the Psalmist proclaimed. “When its waves mount up, you still them.” I meditated on that passage. It made perfect sense, but could God calm the seas in my life?
I walked into work hanging my head. How quickly I had forgotten His promise. But as if an angel had tapped me on my shoulder, those words popped back into my head: He rules the raging seas…when the waves mount up he stills them…
Suddenly I felt encouraged. If God can rule the waves, He can certainly manage my life. I lifted my chin, entered my office, and checked the one message on my phone. “Well,” the caller announced. “Your prayers have been answered, Pat.” I thought it was a prank call until he continued. “This is Randy from church. I have your wallet.”
What?
Of course I called Randy back. It turns out he found it on the side of the road on the same on-ramp I had gone back to check. I mean I’ve seen miracles, but this one blew my mind. What are the odds that a friend from my church would just happen across my wallet on an on-ramp during rush hour, in a city of close to a million? Astronomical. The truth to this story is God’s power IS astronomical, and He can calm the raging seas of life. But He cares about the little things, too, in my case, a special leather wallet.
What a mighty God we serve. “Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea—the Lord on high is mighty.”
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God IS mighty. Yet he cares about even the little things in our lives. What an incredible thought.