Notes About Storms

One thing that I’ve discovered about Oklahoma is that it never does anything fifty percent.

If someone from Oklahoma says, “Would you like a cup of cold water?” it’s pretty much code for “Water that you will have to wait for it to thaw before you can drink it.”

Even the tap water in Oklahoma is pretty epic. I’m pretty sure that you have to use boiling water to cool down the hot water, because it’s pretty hot (or for the converse, pretty cold.)

Potlucks, church services, donuts, ice cream, this fantastic new discovery called “Frozen Custard”, libraries, and the list could go on! They don’t do anything 50%.

This fact was even more furthered by a resent thunderstorm.

This, my dears, was a real thunderstorm.

It was raining so hard that it literally looked the same way it does during a blizzard; there was thunder and lighting, (lots of thunder and lightning) wind, and just other thunderstorm related things.

If I was a couple years younger, I would have probably run into my parent’s room and hidden under their bed.

I was rudely awoken to view this spectacle by my cat, who was going psycho.

As I looked at the wind and the thunder, and jumped at the clapping thunder, to be honest, I was scared.

I mean, what if a tornado decided to come down?
What about a hurricane? There’s enough rain for one!
 Miscellaneous other natural disasters could totally happen-- what was keeping them from just popping down and taking us to the end of this earth?

At some point I fell asleep, and woke up the next morning to a soggy ground, grey clouds, very little wind, and no storm.

That irrational “It’s dark and stormy thus I must make up every impossible situation” mindset died away like the storm, and I could now see that it was now a slightly cloudy day that would be full of God things.

I walked out to my deck with a cup of hot coffee, and very briefly sat there. Just thinking about how 6 hours before, I couldn’t see across the courtyard, and now I could not only see across the courtyard, but also all the way to the parking lot.

But I mostly thought about the storm.

You see, even though the storm seemed like it was lasting forever, it didn’t.  Eventually, it blew over.

Granted, that when it did blow over there where still ‘scars’ from the night before, (such as a huge mud puddle in front of the car…) but the storms itself blew over.

Just like the storms of life.

In the moment, they don’t seem like they will evvveeerrr end, right? It seems like it will last forever!

But it doesn’t. They blow over eventually, sure there might be some aftermath to work through, but they don’t last forever.

Unlike the storms, Jesus does last forever, and happens to be sovereign over the biggest storms of life and over all the details.  He can (and will) step in and calm the storms of life, and help you clean it up.

Another thing that in my thinking I thought of is this.

Storms are dark. The clouds block out the light of the stars and moon. I sleep with a light in my room, and the power was kind of flickery. It was dark!

But even in the darkest storm, there was still light. Yes it was fleeting, but it was still light nonetheless.

In the same way, Jesus is always the light. He’s the light to the world! He’s always there.

No matter how dark the world may seem, no matter how crazy the storms may look, Jesus is still there. He’s still sovereign over the storms and he’s the light that pierces through the darkness.

“Later, Jesus talked to the people again, saying, “I am the light to the world. The person who follows me will never live in darkness but have the light that gives life.”

~John 8:12.

“Jesus stood up and commanded the wind and said over the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind stopped, and it became completely calm.”

~Mark 4:39

--Rachel Joy