Tuesday, June 11, 2019

MATT Good morning! I’m Matt Farmer, Associate Pastor at Central United Methodist Church in downtown Meridian. In the fall of 1982, Deborah Kiley set out with three other young people to deliver the 58-foot yacht, Trashman, from Maine to Florida. Off the coast of North Carolina, they encountered gale winds and mountainous seas that sank their boat. Enduring four grueling days at sea without food or fresh water, the crew clung to life in a rubber dinghy in shark-infested waters. In her book Albatross, Deborah recalls how one of the crew shouted curses at God for their dilemma. Despite her fatigue, Deborah silently recited The Lord’s Prayer and asked God to teach her through this crisis. Later, the same young man drank seawater, became delirious, and jumped overboard to his death. Eventually, the survivors were rescued by a Russian freighter. Each of us responds in different ways to a crisis. Centuries ago, Job was hit by one wave of bad news after another. At one point his wife told him to curse God and die. Job’s response was profound: “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10). The next time a crisis hits, recognize God’s sovereignty and do as Deborah Kiley did—ask God to teach you something through it.