Storms Passing Through

 

I looked out my window this morning, first quiet morning in a long while, and the rain was gone. Words filled my mind, and I knew I had to write, but write not just for myself, but to share with anyone that would read my words.

You see, yesterday the storm was the big, bad wolf trying to blow my house down. Today, the wind was quiet. “The storm has passed on somewhere else.” My insides declared the storm over as the dark days that had hovered over us all week were now banished. Truth is I love rainy days. I enjoy immensely the sound of the rain drumming on the side of my window. I enjoy watching the trees creating their own dance as the wind blows without mercy. Many of us enjoy these dark days perhaps because in our childhood they were hot cocoa days, or soup days, or days for dancing out in the rain. Yet, the truth is none of us enjoy the storms that come on in the inside.

 

I’ve never heard anyone say, “Let me tell you, My child has a fever and wow, I felt like throwing a party!” I’ve never had someone tell me, “She’s dying and all I could think of was making some soup or putting on an old movie.” 

The storms that rage the hardest and the longest are not the ones that inspire poetry, but the ones that make us bleed on the inside where no one can see it or stop it. Our children get sick. Our children enter moments of depression and dark days. Our parents become ill and we’re covered with fear and uncertainty. Our marriage is taken into the fire once again when you though all was well. Doubt fills us. We stop trusting again. A family member or a friend shares their broken heart or their difficult situation. The storm rages on inside your house and inside your mind and nothing seems powerful enough to make it go away. These are the storms none of us enjoy for we are sort of powerless when they beat upon our emotions and the reservoirs of our strength and faith.

It is in the storms that many of us differ. Some will fall apart in the crisis and others will choose to stand no matter how much more violent the storm beats down upon their home, their family, and everything inside and around them. I’m no super anything, but I’ve learned to pray through the storms. I think I have ever rarely seen long moments of peace in my life. They come for a moment of celebration and for me to experience the response of God’s love for me. Truth is, there is always some trauma, something that requires the Emergency Room of the heart or life. In my experience, someone around me always needs to be taken to the ICU of life. The storm begins again just when I felt the sun was pushing through. This is why I can tell you that I know why many of you may not like the storms out in nature because they just might remind you of how it’s raining on the inside.

I’m reminded that Jesus spoke to the violent storm and the raging wind. He said, “Peace. Be still.” I strongly take those words being spoken into the storms that visit my life. I say to myself, “Jesus already spoke peace over this situation, so I am going to believe that God has this in His hands.” The Word of God whispers, “I am with you.” The calm covers me like a warm blanket for I am reassured that I have not been forgotten and left out to fend for myself in the storm.

Maybe you are saying, “I hate the storms!” Your personal hurricane is far from over and perhaps, just as the crisis seemed to be changing, the weather forecast shouted, “Get ready, girl, it’s about to get really ugly in your part of town!” This is where I invite you to try and trust Jesus. He has been with me through the ugliest moments in my life. Yup, He has given me a song to sing while the rain has been upon me and left me soaking in my heartache. Jesus has been with me when all I have felt is being broken and I have absolutely no tears, only emptiness and anger. Jesus has been like the warmth of a big mug of peppermint, ginger and honey. God’s strength has poured out into my life when I felt like I couldn’t get up and face another day. He is faithful. He’s been faithful to me.

Storms are perhaps just a part of life so that we might make a decision. We either wait them out on our own, desolated on an island of grief and pain, or we invite God’s Word to speak into every crevice in the hard places. God speaks life into dead situations. God speaks healing into the painful situations. God speaks restoration when the clay pot in your hands fall to the ground into a million pieces. God speaks forgiveness when your heart is broken again. God speaks health when sickness is all over your family. God reminds you of his Promises when your children make decisions contrary to what you believed and wanted for their future. God speaks hope into a marriage that is holding on by the threads. God speaks joy into a life that struggles to rejoice and laugh.

I choose, as the song says, to Praise God in the storm. I have no choice but to believe God will continue to be my refuge. I run to Him when only He can see the storms that are starting. I run to God when the storms are out of control and my house is being shaken. I remain rooted and grounded in my God when I hearing the chirping of the birds because the storm has started to shift. I hold on to Him when peace floods my heart because this I know, the storms come and go but those that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength: They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. So, if we have promises like that to keep cheering us on, let us get up, take a shower, fix your hair or get that ponytail done. Let’s dress for battle in our best jeans or leggings, put on some lipstick, and with our confidence in the Creator of Life, face your battle like a warrior. Say, “Yeah, come on, I hear you! I see you! You come against me with all you’ve got, but I come right back at you in the Name of the Lord of Hosts!” I hope you rise up with hope and push through this storm in your life. Please don’t faint and don’t give up. If you need someone to pray with you, you can count on me. Find someone to pray with or talk with. You don’t have to be in the storm alone. Take time to pray and trust that He who began a good work in you will be able to complete it. Remember, “This too shall pass.” Loving you today, in Jesus Name. 

Personal Edit note: I wrote this October 2020 and I am reading it tonight, December 14, 2021. I had no idea 2020 would end with my life entering a drastic storm where my husband would pass away only weeks after writing this. Thank you, Lord, for keeping us, in the midst of every storm and hardship.