by Steve Badger
The first bolt of lightning struck so close that we could not distinguish any break between the blinding flash and the deafening thunderclap; they seemed to occur together. The sheer surprise of it caused me to stumble in the water. My heart jumped as it started pumping my instantly adrenalin-saturated blood at maximum output, but there was no place to run, no place to hide: we were in the middle of a shallow creek, surrounded by woods, and more than a mile from any shelter.
The second bolt exploded two seconds after the first and introduced a relentless, noisy downpour. We quickly lost count as the lightning began striking repeatedly, in quick succession, and always close by.
How did we ever get ourselves into such a dangerous and frightening predicament?
The trip had begun innocently enough. I had been camping with my family and a couple of Christian friends in south Mississippi on the Black Creek, which is not a little creek but an often fast-flowing small river. Dick and I tossed our inflatable rafts in the back of the station wagon, and my wife gave the two of us a short ride to find a place further upstream. We planned to enjoy a long, sunny float back to our stream-side campsites.
Because no road followed the banks of the Black, we had some difficulty finding a good place to put in. Finally we crossed a bridge and decided that the small stream under it would take us to the Black. We thought we had a five or ten minute hike downstream. Fifteen minutes at most. I told my wife we'd see her back at camp in an hour or less, and we started out.
Trees almost blocked out the sky and bright sunshine above us. The strange surroundings made us jumpy, and I realized our vulnerability when we saw a large black snake slide out of the water and slither away into the underbrush. We were forced to walk in the small stream because the water was seldom even a foot deep, but once or twice the water deepened enough to allow us to rest by floating for a few minutes while the current carried us toward our goal.
After fifteen or twenty minutes of wading, as we were starting to question the distance to the Black, we saw through the treetops that a summer squall was brewing. One of us joked, "Boy, I sure hope it doesn't rain - I might get wet." Little did we realize that in a very few minutes rain would be the least of our worries.
Then the fury descended, trapping us in the middle of a fierce electrical storm that was pouring rain down through the treetop-funnel overhead. Bright flashes startled us even though we were expecting them. Unbearable, ear-splitting thunder made our temples throb. The air was electrified!
To our credit, we didn't panic. But then, there was no way to panic. Where is the safest place in a lightning storm? I've always been told to stay away from trees, but trees were in every direction. I don't know what the experts say, but you certainly don't think that standing in water is safe around electricity. There we were standing in the water under trees with electricity falling down out of the sky all around us. Safety lay in no discernible direction, so we continued sloshing downstream.
Since time fades the memory, I don't remember who said which part of the conversation—and it doesn't really matter, we were both trusting Jesus—but it went something like this.
"Hey, brother, we don't have to be afraid, God controls the elements. Remember, Jesus calmed the storm."
"Yeah, but the Bible refers to Satan as ‘the prince of the air.’ Maybe he's throwing those bolts at us!"
"Well, even if he is powerful, God is still all powerful. Satan can't do anything to harm us unless the Father allows it."
“Why don't we let nature lead us in thunderous applause to our Savior and shout praises to Him like it says somewhere in the Psalms."
"Good idea. Let's do it."
Of course, this conversation didn't happen exactly as recorded here. It took much longer because it was punctuated every few seconds by deafening thunder. We had to repeat almost every sentence. We must have been a spectacle: two grown men in cut-offs, T-shirts, and tennis shoes, lugging rubber rafts and walking, running, stumbling down a shallow stream shouting at the very tops of our lungs with lightning striking all around.
“Hosanna! Praise Jesus! He is Lord! Glory to God!” “Worthy is the Lamb! Maranatha! Hallelujah to the Lamb!” And on and on it went. But an amazing change came over us.
All fear left with our first few shouts of praise to the Lord Jesus. We recognized His presence and protection and were awed by this overwhelming display of unpredictable fury. Never had I been so close to so much lightning in such a brief time span. The most intense activity lasted at least ten minutes and perhaps fifteen, but it ended as abruptly as it had started, and just as we came to the much larger Black Creek. What a relief!
As we ran into the deep waters, we had a new concern on our minds. We guessed that my wife and the others back at the camp were getting worried since they expected us to return within an hour, and two hours had already passed. We asked God to give them peace.
We jumped onto our rafts and paddled to midstream. Now that we were no longer partially protected by the towering trees, the rain peppered us even more intensely. During the half hour that we floated toward camp and friends, the rain slackened steadily and the lightning stopped completely. We floated now without talking, calmly worshipping God in the comparative silence of the gentle rainfall. The storm was over when we arrived at camp to share our experience with our family and friends, and to thank God together for our safety.
This adventure reassured me of several things: God protects; God inhabits the praises of His people; and, regardless of the circumstances, it is important to keep your trust and faith in God. But my mind keeps coming back to this often forgotten principle: The things that the enemy thinks he can use to shake our faith or to frighten us, God will use to strengthen and mature us in our faith in Him.
By God's grace our faith is being increased daily through such simple, yet sometimes dramatic, experiences. However, if we fail to recognize and take advantage of these opportunities to place our faith in Him, if we fail to praise Him during trying times, these experiences can be as destructively frightening as the enemy intends for them to be.
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Copyright (C) 1994 Steve Badger
Document last revised: February 7, 1997
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