Well, it does for me.
There have been so many time in my life I was afraid of being swallowed up by forces that were far bigger than my puny boat could handle and certainly beyond my power to manipulate. I've spent way too many sleepless nights trying to devise a clever plan, trying manipulate events or trying just to keep my head above water. At the darkest point in the storm I've accused God with the same words I'm sure the disciples used "are you sleeping? Don't you care? Don't you see what's happening? Do Something!" So why the storm? I've been told that southern California has some of the best weather in the nation. The average temperature is usually in the mid-seventies, with low humidity and more sunshine than any other. People just seem to gravitate to a climate that seems to have forgotten the importance of storms, is predictable, and considered by many to be "perfect". Southern California has wonderfully predictable weather, but it is also on the edge of becoming a desert. While it may have low humidity, it also has a nasty habit of sparking brushfires that consume thousands of homes and the memories and lives that made them. They sacrifice green for browns and tans. They give up rain and take their chances with the Santa Anna Winds. To those who live there is must be worth it. Why the Storms? Because we need them to remind us that there is more in us than in the circumstances that surround us. Life was not meant to be lived in a protected oasis away from every sort of challenge or adventure. Without the storm our spirit would wither and die before we could even put down roots. We would never learn to take that first step into a bigger world. I am often reminded of this simply truth with a quote I learned years ago: "Sometimes God calms the storm and then sometimes He'll let the storm rage and calm His child." Don't get me wrong, I don't go looking for a storm; I run from them. But when I'm caught up in one I know that I'll survive and that God will get me to the other side. Its only in the storm that I get to hear God whisper in my ear, "Peace, Be Still". Are you waiting for God to whisper in your ear? Then be quiet and listen, He speaking in ways you cannot yet imagine. Do you know someone who's little boat is about to be swamped and needs a friend to speak encouragement and hope into their lives?Then Make a Difference and offer them Grace!
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Isn’t it comforting to know, if we are dependent upon Him and ask and allow Him to be, that God will Captain our ship not just during the storm but also before and after?
God never promised us a “rose garden ” on earth, but He has promised us one on the other side of the Narrow Gate. I can’t help but think of the figurative meaning of the old saying, “April showers bring May flowers” — without the uglines of the showers, we would not have nor, more importantly, we not appreciate the beauty of the flowers.
If we did not endure the darkness, we would not rejoice in the light. If we did not shed the tears, we would not enjoy the smiles. If we did not suffer the pain, we would not appreciate the health and healing. If we did not experience storms, we would not see and be thankful for the rainbow.
If we never needed to be comforted, then we would not know how to comfort. If we never needed to be served, we would not desire to serve. If we never needed peace, we would not see the need to offer peace. If we never needed grace, we would not choose to share grace.
The storms, if we CHOOSE them to be, are not destroyers but builders. Metaphorically speaking, their water grows us up. Grows us to realize, if “we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear,” that the storms we experience go beyond being just about “me.” We would realize that once we have endured the “refining process” they cause and once God is finished molding us as He chooses in the midst of that experience, He is able, then, “because we are able,” to send us out as His instruments “to make disciples and make a difference” by serving others as Christ “came to serve and not to be served.”
Each storm is one step in fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives, which is making us more like Christ so that we can share the Him we know with others. Storms grow us up so that we can help grow others up as all of us together reach for that other land that lies “somewhere over the rainbow.”