April 18

“Whatever overflows you with its waves and billows, He can cause it to flee.  He can drive back your ‘Jordan’ and turn the ‘flint’ into a veritable 'fountain of waters'.”  Eugenia Price, S.P.S. 4/18

A burst pipe decided to “overflow” with its “waves and billows”.  This on the morning we were planning to leave on vacation.  I had not planned on having to spend three hours--before my first cup of coffee, no less--carting furniture out to the garage and vacuuming water out of my basement before I left on a three-day vacation!  Nor did I realize God was about to speak to me in an awesome way.  Moments before the discovery of our awaiting “waves and billows” I had been complaining to my husband about my feelings of “not mattering”.  I’d been brooding on it for several days and was officially depressed about it.  As I waded barefoot into the ankle-deep, icy cold water removing everything I could easily pick up it suddenly hit me that we would not have been home if we’d left on our vacation as originally planned.  The school system had taken back two days from Spring Vacation because of too many snow days.  I’d had to change the day we were to leave. This “Jordan” could have continued unchecked for at least another eight hours when the neighbor boy was scheduled to feed the cat.  I began praising God for this, and just as suddenly as God had driven back the Israelites’ Jordan, my "Jordan" of overwhelming feelings I’d been experiencing earlier were driven back.  In praising God in the midst of the overflowing water I was delivered from my self-pity and set on dry ground.

“For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.”  Hebrews 2:18