Weathering the Storm

Today my timing was off.

I stalled at my house thinking that whatever storm was turning my house to night and requiring me to turn on the lights to find my shoes would blow over before I had to leave. Well, after about 15 minutes I decided to try the other tactic and see if I could make it to work before the rain came down. I was wrong. I ended up trekking to work through the worst part of the storm which had not been my goal!

This was one of those storms that cut the visibility to almost nothing and was accompanied by lots of wind and many lightening bolts. I drove through it praying the whole time that I would safely make it to work and struggling to not let my anxiety grab hold too much. With a couple of narrow misses, I arrived safely and was able to get into my building.

While a storm is not an unusual occurrence, being face to face with this one made me think about how I always have a choice in how I'll respond when a storm blows into my life. Storms tend to arise in so many areas, whether physically appearing on the horizon and dumping buckets of rain or showing up in the spiritual realm and leaving me drenched in unexpected emotion and doubt. When each one comes, I have a choice to run around in fear, frantically trying to make sure that I'm controlling each aspect of my environment or I can choose to press on through it, holding tight to the Lord as my stable point in a shaky world.

I find that the more I take the second approach, the less phased I am by the storms I encounter. Sure, some of them knock me down and leave me reeling but I am seeing that through the years, my response to turn to the Lord is becoming more instinctual and I'm weathering things with more faith and less doubt. I think this is one area where practice does make perfect and while I doubt I'll ever get to the place where nothing can topple me, I do believe that the more I lean into the Lord, the more I am able to stand up through the winds. Today's storm was just another reminder of the fact that I can find peace in the middle of anything that may happen around me as long as I look up and not around.

I'll leave you with the lyrics to an excellent song that I've been hearing a lot lately by Mercy Me. It's called "Bring the Rain" and seems appropriate for today:

"I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You
Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain"