I recently texted a friend with these words in moment of desperation with a particular situation in my life.
“I feel like I’m watching a storm roll in. I can see it coming, I know there is nothing I can do to stop it, and I wonder if this will be the one that takes me out for good.”
Some of us are experiencing an emotional and spiritual hurricane season. (If you live in an area of LITERAL hurricane season you are in my prayers). We know the atmosphere and the weather patterns. We can feel a shift in the air even before we see the dark clouds. Then we see the swirling storm on the horizon and the feeling of powerlessness comes. There is nothing we can do to stop the storm except batten down the hatches and wait.
Sometimes it just all feels like too much and we wonder if we can weather another storm. There are two pieces of truth that I have been clinging to.
“And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.” Matthew 7:28
This is the theme verse for our church’s kids program this year, but every time I hear it, I’m reminded that it applies to me too. The storms will come. It is part of life. How we weather them is based on how strong our foundation is. If we build our lives on the rock, the rains and winds may come, but we will withstand it.
“The disciples went and woke him, saying,
‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’ He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.
‘Where is your faith?’ he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another,
‘Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.’ “
Luke 8: 24-25
I also need to remember that I serve the one who makes the wind and waves obey. I am, in fact, powerless, but He is all powerful. Sometimes in my fear and frustration, all I can see is the storm. But I forget that I am not standing alone in it.
The Laundry List 