Peg Leg Pete’s is still standing. It’s been blown and battered, but it’s there. Two sizable hurricanes in less than a year reduced Pensacola Beach to a giant sandpile littered with a million broken toys. A piece of a wall here, a roof there, piles of lumber and insulation everywhere.
But Peg Leg Pete’s, a somewhat rustic seafood restaurant precariously situated on a narrow sliver of sand between the Gulf of Mexico and a bay, took Mother Nature’s furious punches and rose from the mat to fight on.
Who cares? I care. And you should, too, because we all need to know that when it seems like nearly everything around us is shattering, coming undone or flying apart, some things won’t.
My husband and I visited Pensacola Beach two years ago, before hurricanes Ivan and Dennis plowed through. During that trip we discovered Peg Let Pete’s – an award-winning restaurant quite popular with the locals. Posh, it isn’t; tasty, it is.
The restaurant’s décor features an eclectic nautical theme– which is to say they have lots of old mounted fish hanging on the walls alongside weathered life preservers, oars, nets and other fishing paraphernalia. Many of the local patrons who frequent Peg Leg Pete’s are somewhat decorative, too, in a slightly more earthy way — “motorcycle Gang chic,” you might call it – dew rags and earrings on the guys and copious amounts of hairspray and eyeliner on the women.
Having said that, Peg Leg Pete’s was actually quite charming, the food was great and we truly enjoyed dining there.
When I heard how Hurricane Ivan had devastated Pensacola Beach back in September of 2004, I immediately thought of Peg Leg’s. I didn’t think the weathered, wooden structure could possibly withstand the fury of 130 mph winds. I figured it had flown apart like a pile of matchsticks and long since washed ashore in Venezuela.
I recently tagged along on my husband’s business trip to Pensacola Beach. We stayed in one of the few hotels that has reopened since the hurricanes and asked the desk clerk if Peg Leg Pete’s had somehow managed to survive. We were told it had, so off we went for dinner.
We traveled down a highway littered with the vacant hulls of condos, hotels and private homes, and then came to Peg Leg’s, looking exactly as it had two years ago, except for the thick sand now blanketing the parking lot.
“How did this building survive?” I asked the waiter.
“Oh, it was no problem. This place is built really well. Those other places looked good on the outside but they weren’t built well. That’s why they’re gone.”
Quite a lesson packed in those words. When the storms come, what … or WHO … will survive?
Not necessarily those who look flashy on the outside, but rather, those who have built their lives upon something solid.
What does that mean? I’ll let Jesus tell you Himself: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)
Peg Leg Pete’s is a picture of what I want my life to look like. When the storms rage, when everything around me is blowing apart, I want to stand strong. And thanks to Jesus Christ, I can.