The Last House Standing

When Hurricane Michael slammed into Mexico Beach, Florida, on October 10, 2018, it arrived as a Category 5 monster — 160-mile-per-hour winds, a storm surge that swallowed homes whole. Concrete foundations cracked like eggshells. Block after block lay flattened in the aftermath.

But one house stood.

Russell King and his nephew Lebron Lackey had built their elevated home to exceed every building code, anchoring it deep into the sand with reinforced steel and poured concrete. Reporters dubbed it "the last house standing." Photographs of that lone house — surrounded by utter devastation, yet upright — circled the globe.

Psalm 46 doesn't promise a life without hurricanes. The psalmist is unflinching about chaos: the earth gives way, mountains collapse into the sea, waters roar and foam. He names the terror honestly. But then comes the turn: "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns."