I noticed the wasp as I closed the van door. He was looking at me through my side window. I didn’t want to roll down my window to shoo him away in case he decided to join me in the van. I assumed he’d fly away as soon as I started to drive.

He didn’t.

As I continued to drive across town, I kept an eye on him. He hung on. As the wind rushed by him, he flattened his body against the glass. His body  flapped in the wind while his feet seemed to be superglued to the window. I vascillated between feeling sorry for him and marvelling at his ability to hang on.

When I arrived at my next stop, he’d been on my window for a dozen blocks. I wondered what 35 miles per hour feels like to something so small. He was still hanging on when I stopped. He was dazed but seemed to be alive. I hoped he’d recover.

He wasn’t on my window a few minutes later when I returned to the van. I assumed he regained enough strength to fly away.

When have you hung on for dear life, feeling tossed and beaten from every direction?

I don’t know whether or not the best thing for the wasp to do was to hang onto the window. I would have thought it would have been easier for him to fly away on his own, but once I started driving, his instincts kicked in, and he likely would have been injured or killed by the impact of hitting a car behind me or falling to the pavement because he was too dizzy and disoriented to fly.

I know who I want to hang onto as adamantly as the wasp hung onto my window: Jesus.

Hanging on doesn’t mean life if easy. The wind, turns, and pressures of life swirl around us, disorienting us, causing us to wonder where we are, where we’re going, and if we’ll survive. But in the middle of the mayhem, we can know at least one thing: where our feet are.

Everyone who hears my words and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. It rained hard, the floods came, and the winds blew and hit that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on rock. Everyone who hears my words and does not obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. It rained hard, the floods came, and the winds blew and hit that house, and it fell with a big crash. (Matthew 7:24-27)

I want to be on solid ground. I want to be firmly planted in God’s will. When everything around me is falling apart and swirling around me, when I can’t see straight because of the confusion and uncertainty, I want to know my foundation is secure. No one can take away or change the reliability of Jesus.

Whatever is going on in your life right now – whether you’re in a time of celebration or a time of confusion and despair – look at your feet. Where are you standing? Are you trusting a foundation you want to believe is solid but you’re defining it on your own, or have you sought and found Truth and planted your feet and life firmly on the Rock?

Strong winds and storms will come; life on earth is difficult. Know where you stand.