Today there was a ton of thunderstorms that rolled over Raleigh. When I got to work this morning I didn’t have an umbrella so I had to drive up and throw my stuff down under the awning and then park and run to get into the church. Just as I was getting out of my car a huge blinding flash of lightning followed by a loud clap of thunder scared me to death. It rained off and on all day. There were periods of light rained followed by heavy down pours and lightning and thunder. In between there was sunshine and blue sky. It was a crazy weather day.
The storms today got me thinking though. Often we associate storms with “bad weather.” This made me think about the rainy days that we have had in our lives. We have storms very often in our lives. These are times when things are going badly or we have said or done something wrong, or when no matter what we do things just don’t work out for us. Sometimes these storms are small like a drizzling rain. They are a little annoying but easy to handle and we don’t get too wet, or mad from them. They usually clear up pretty easy and life dries up pretty quickly.
Other times our storms are more like a harder rain. The problems are bigger and the rain hurts as it falls. We get really wet or mad and it is hard to get dry. Often we allow these storms to last a long time and they seem to last a longer time. If we are lucky we have a friend with an umbrella that is there to help us and keep us from getting too wet from this storm of life.
The hardest storms are those that last all day long. They are down pours that soak us to the bone. The problems that coincide with these storms are often loud and angry kind like thunder and lightning. It is often hard to dry off from these storms. The problems from a storm like this one often linger for a long and we have to clean them up and fix them just like the wind blow branches or debris that is created from a heavy long thunder storm.
Yes often our bad weather of our lives cause storms to happen. But just like natural storms that bring water to the world to help plants and things grow, our storms do the same for us. We grow from each storm that we have. Our problems have solutions and learning those solutions help us to grow wiser and stronger. We need those storms to help us get through life. They may not be pretty, some of may have more than of them then others, there is not always a direct answer to the storms of our lives, but there is always the calm after the storm. There is always blue sky and sunshine after the rain. We always have that to look forward to no matter how long the storm lasts.
Accepting God into our lives and talking to him about our storms, also known as our problems, he will always provide a rainbow to follow after the storm. If we keep him close and understand that with him in our lives we will always find shelter from the storms of life, we will make it through any storm that life throws at us. We are often told to put on the full armor of God but in this case all we need is the umbrella of God’s love to shelter us from the storm.
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