I’ve been learning about worry, and trust.
On New Year’s Eve, our street flooded. It was quite scary, really, but it was also a lesson in God’s protection and provision for those who follow Him.
I was planning to go out on New Year’s Eve, to see the new year in with some friends at church. The church building was open for fellowship from early evening but, as I was planning to stay until midnight, I decided to join a bit later on. As I was just getting ready to go out, I got a text saying that everyone was going home because there had been a water leak in the building and the water had had to be turned off. To be honest, I was sad, because it meant spending new year’s eve alone at the last minute, but the weather was pretty bad anyway and I gave the time to the Lord and decided to make the best of things. And He blessed me. I had a good time watching films and spending time with the Lord.
Around midnight, my phone was on because that’s when everyone sends Happy New Year messages! And, along with all that, our street WhatsApp group popped up with a message to let us all know that water was rising in the street! I wasn’t too worried to start with, but, over the next hour, or so I kept checking from the window, and getting more and more worried! The water rose and rose, coming closer and closer to the houses, including the house that is made of my flat and another one. Thankfully, I live mostly upstairs, but I was still pretty scared. I’d never experienced flooding like that before, and, though I like living alone most of the time, I really wished I had someone else in the flat to help me work out what to do! By then, it was very late and I really needed to sleep. I did everything I could think of (but there wasn’t much I could do), and then lay on my bed with a tight chest and beating heart, shaking with anxiety and praying. And, as I prayed and processed with the Lord, I realised that there really wasn’t anything else I could do apart from leave it with Him. From the look of the water outside, there was a good chance that my car trapped on the driveway, my neighbour’s flat downstairs and my entryway downstairs would flood, but there was nothing I could do about it, and I still needed to sleep. So I prayed and gave it all to God and told Him that, unless He showed me I should do anything else, I thought I should just stop looking out of the window and go to sleep… and after a while, I did! I put on some white noise to block everything out, curled up on my bed and went to sleep.
At 7.30am, I woke up and I checked downstairs… and there was no water in the hallway. I could see out of the window that, although the house was surrounded by water and the garden was submerged, my car was only wet to halfway up the tyres, and it wasn’t raining anymore. So, as it was a day off and I was trying to get rested before going back into everyday life, I decided to go back to sleep! When I woke up again, it was to a knock on the door. I opened the door to a policemen checking I was ok… and an underwater world. But, for me, everything was ok. The water hadn’t quite reached my front door (though it had come close), and everything basically seemed intact. I found out later that my neighbour downstairs had water over her front porch, but it didn’t (quite!) make it over her doorstep. God had protected us both, including the electrics in both flats, the downstairs in both flats, and my car. And it puts things in perspective when I found out that many people on my street were flooded, and the downstairs of homes, as well as cars, were ruined. I’m praying for them with a heavy heart.
Wow. God’s protection felt so real, and so kind. He had kept me safe and protected me in multiple ways. Because my car was high up on the driveway, it didn’t get ruined by water. Because the water didn’t quite get over my neighbour’s porch, our house (apart from the space underneath it!) was kept dry and safe. I even felt grateful that I didn’t go out on New Year’s Eve, because if I had done, I would have come back around 12.30am to a flooded street, and may have even needed to wade to my house, which would have been a pretty frightening experience in the middle of the night! I was so thankful for how God looked after me. And I know that doesn’t mean God always spares us from things. I know that sometimes He allows them for His wise reasons, such as to teach us, and grow us, and draw us to Himself. But I also know that He wants me to trust Him, and not worry.
It was a lesson in trusting God and His protection for me as His child through Jesus, but I think it’s one I need to apply again and again! A few days later, I heard something that made me suspect another flood warning had been put on our area. I began to panic again, feeling a knot of fear when the rain fell outside. As I drove to church on Sunday night through streaming rain and splashing streets, knowing there was probably another flood warning, my heart was trembling. Would it happen again? Would it be worse this time? It looks like it’s going to be okay as far as I can tell, but anxiety can so easily come in.
And I’m learning that it all comes down to surrender, and trusting God. I belong to Him through Christ and, because I do (and you can too– you can find out more here), I don’t need to be afraid of things in this broken world. He provided. He will provide. He even gave me peace so I could sleep in the midst of the flooding uncertainty of New Year’s Eve! And He wants me to trust in Him for whatever else this new year holds.
Caroline Abblitt 