Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT)
How is it that weather can go from one extreme to the other?
One day it can be in the 100’s in the Phoenix area and the next it can be in
the seventies! You can go from huge billowing dust storms to the calm of clear
springtime nights. Almost as quickly as the storms start, they are over…leaving
behind a plethora of downed branches, gathering leaves, and grit on every
surface as far as the eye can see! My poor plants are confused – they don’t
know whether to bud or wilt! There can be equally as confusing times in our
spiritual, emotional, and/or relational lives that leave us wondering.
When spiritual storms confront us, we might discover either
how solidly we are secured to Jesus, riding it out quite well, or how loosely
we have become connected to him that we just get tossed to and fro like a cork
floating in the sea. The storms might be a battle for our minds – hoping to get
an inroad into our faith through troubling thoughts or dreams. They could be a
battle for our souls – desiring nothing more than to have us surrender to every
evil desire afforded to us at the moment. Still yet, they could be an attempt
to disturb our peace “just enough” that we get rattled and begin to waver in
our commitment to something God has asked us to do.
Relational storms challenge us in ways we sometimes didn’t
ever imagine – making it more than a challenge to “motor on” within that
relationship. We want to throw in the towel, but we know we can’t because these
relationships are important and their existence is a direct design of God
himself. God places us in families – the relationship issues within those
families are our doing! God places us within work environments that will
challenge us and help to use our creativity – those relational issues with
coworkers, bosses, and supervisors are a result of either our pride,
perfectionistic attitude, or an unwillingness to see these issues as a way to
help us “shave off” a few rough spots in our lives.
Emotional storms seem to be never-ending – raging at will
and not letting up until we get ourselves all “twitter-pated”, as Tigger would
say. Emotional storms have so many “angles” to them – hormones adding a blend
of ups and downs that make circumstances seem a bit like we are weathering a
hurricane in open seas in a small life raft! One of the hardest storms to
endure is that of our unending emotional upheaval brought on by circumstances
we could have or should have controlled, but didn’t. We find ourselves thrown
into a fray of mixed up and sometimes “messed up” emotional conflict. These
aren’t the easiest storms to ride out, but when we lean into Jesus and stop
responding to those emotions like they own us, we might just see how close we
are to a break-through in the “weather” we are enduring.
Extremes come and they go. They aren’t the “forever” of
life, but they are forever with us – at this time, then at another. We might do
well to ask God which type of storm we are facing, what it is that will helps
us get safely through the storm, and where it is we can find safety the next
time that similar storm rages our way. Just sayin!