Here you see a corner stone among the mud.

Wild storms blew last night and I was thankfully able to tuck into bed and sleep through it. On inspecting the damage in the garden, a netball post had fallen down and a small tree. The mud hut looked okay from the outside but I checked it through in the darkness with a torch.

The inspection revealed a few places were weakness had been and a few small holes had appeared, one part had collapsed a little through the torrential rain and wind, and with the hedge leaning in on the hut.

Storms can be good. In this instance I am thankful that the weakness has been revealed early, so that I could rebuild a section. You see it was a section that I built in a hurry and I also neglected to use much straw, in fact not much at all. Consequently when the storm came the walls were not holding together.

Cob walls need soil, clay, water and straw, and if you rush the job then it will show.

James 1:2-3

Trials and temptations

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

The hut thankfully is fine because of a few things. The most important of these is a good solid structure, which provides solid corner stones for the walls to rest on. The trials of the storm test the hut and reveal weaknesses that I can rebuild very easily and I can make stronger.

The one thing about my career going from one place to another is that I am very adaptable and used to change, so that if I have to deliver something in a different way or if I have to do something drastically different, I am not phased.  your faith produces perseverance

I told a person today about my childhood, and about how I was a bit of a rogue. They were really shocked and actually doubted that I had changed. People do change and it was from the storm I was led through in my faith that I ended up struggling with Jesus on a cold morning and eventually offering my life too Him. It is not surprising Jesus won, but I think of it more like when I used to have an arm wrestle with my grandad and I was about six years old. There was no way I would be able to win, but he allowed me to win each time, but there was always a struggle (on my part). The arm wrestles built and developed my relationship with my grandfather. So too the struggle with Jesus developed my relationship with Jesus (even though Jesus is God and could snuff me out in a blink of an eye, it is humbling to think He could spend time with me like that).

I pray tonight for people going through storms in the life, through difficult times and difficulties that seem not to end. May the Lord God Jesus Christ raise you up and carry through this storm. May you rely on Jesus as the cornerstone. May you listen for the still small voice away from the storm, and may the Father bless you and keep you through your troubles.

Amen