18 Aug Making it to the Other Side by Paula Bilderback
Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed to the point that you felt the next wave would surely take you under? You see no way out. Nothing is going to change…it’s hopeless. There is no solution.
That day came in my life on Palm Sunday, 1988. Our bags were packed for a Spring Break vacation, and we were leaving directly after church. My children: Lori 19, Paul 14, and Matt 12, were sitting next to me as my husband Bill Mason preached his sermon on “Being More than a Conqueror.” God had changed his message in a dream the night before, and he was excited about what God had spoken to him. He told me, “It’s gonna be a great day!”
It was his promotion day. At the end of his sermon, he collapsed and died before us and our congregation. He was only 45. Shock, disbelief, despair. An emergency room doctor who was a member of our church could not revive him. Prayers from the whole stunned congregation did not change the outcome. Our world was rocked that day. Our lives would forever change. My children and I entered a storm of such magnitude that I didn’t feel there was any escape.
In Mark 4:35, we read about the disciples in a boat in the middle of the sea when a great storm arose. Jesus had commanded them to launch out and “go over to the other side”; He had not told them about the storm that was to arise that day. As the winds howled, the waves hit the ship, and as the water began to fill the vessel, the disciples panicked, full of fear that they would not survive this storm. What they didn’t realize was that the Master of the Storm was on board with them. He had already declared that they were going to the other side, and one word from Him would deliver them safely though the storm.
On that Palm Sunday, all we were able to see was darkness. I was a widow at 39….now a single mom with teenagers to raise. Questions arose. How could this happen to us? We love and serve the Lord with all our hearts. It was the trial of our faith. But ringing in my ears was the message my beloved preached that morning, “We are more than conquerors!” In that sermon, one of his texts was Isaiah 43:2-3, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, neither will the flame kindle upon you. For I am the Lord your God.”
So the next Sunday, my family was back in our church home. I played the Hammond organ that day. We worshipped; we served through our pain and tears, and somehow, the Master of the Storm showed up. He assured us that we still had a future. He was with us and would never abandon us. And slowly our hearts were mended. My children and I stood on His Word and got to the other side with even greater faith in our loving Savior.
Today, all of my children are in full-time ministry as pastors of great churches. I married Ed Bilderback, a missionary to Costa Rica who had lost his first wife in a car accident there, and in 1995 we came back to the United States to plant a life-giving church called Living Waters Worship Center in Seguin, Texas. God has proven Himself faithful in every area of our lives. We made it through the storm.
No matter how devastating the storm of life you find yourself in, the good news is that Jesus is with you, and you cannot go under when He is on board! Trust Him, keep believing His Word, and you, too, will make it to the other side.