Rain and Storms in Our Lives

Meteorologists predict an 80% chance of storms tomorrow. I've known this for a few days now, and have had time to make necessary preparations. Windows are closed, outside furniture secure, gutters and downspouts cleaned out. We're ready to weather the storm.

Wouldn't it be nice if the other storms in our lives were so predictable? All jokes aside, the weather forecast gives us a pretty good idea of when we might expect the weather to turn nasty and ugly. I'd sure like to have that kind of forewarning for when my life is going to do the same. Wouldn't you?

But it doesn't work that way. Disturbances smash into the fair weather of our lives like rogue waves on the sea--unpredictable, unforeseeable, and often destructive.

The storms tomorrow are not expected to be severe--just run-of-the-mill Spring thundershowers; but even that could cause some big headaches if I didn't take precautions. What if I left my car windows down, or failed to clean out the gutters, or didn't check the sump pump? Those ordinary storms could wreak some havoc on my world.

And sometimes--snicker, snicker--the Weatherman gets it wrong. Maybe the storms will be more severe than predicted. We might get hail, or strong winds. Lightning could strike my house. We've all seen enough floods to last a lifetime. You just never know.

Aren't our lives just the same? Even when we think we can predict a rough patch of road ahead, and prepare ourselves for that, we often get it wrong. Sometimes we expect smooth sailing, and end up with a headwind. Sometimes we think we've sailed around the storm, only to end up in her teeth. And sometimes, storms come out of nowhere.

There are people in our lives right now who are going through their own personal storms. Some of them we know about, others we don't. Many are just garden variety cloudbursts, others are F5 twisters destroying everything in their path--families, marriages, finances, faith. You will talk to someone tomorrow--at church or elsewhere--who is in the middle of a hurricane, and you (and sometimes even they) will have no clue.

Storms happen.

Are you prepared?

Where is your storm shelter, that place you can go to be safe no matter what life throws at you? Who is your lifeline, your emergency contact to call out to when everything you know is carried away by a flood of circumstances you can do nothing to control? What is your evacuation plan?

If you don't have a plan to weather the storms that will come in your life, may I suggest you take a minute to look at a couple of Bible verses? If you don't have a Bible handy, Google them.

Psalm 32:7

Psalm 34:19

Do you see it? The shelter, the lifeline, the 24/7 Emergency Hotline? It's there. For you.

Do you have a story of how God has been a shelter in your time of storms? If so, share it here so we can all see how God works in the lives of ordinary people. Just like you and me.