Storm Season

I have a love/hate relationship with springtime in Texas.  I love to see the fresh green leaves coming out on the trees and all the beautiful flowers blossoming in every direction, but I hate fighting the symptoms of seasonal allergies my children endure.  I also really hate the fact that it is storm season.  I love a good storm.  Thunder and lightning don’t bother me a bit.  It is the tornado warnings and watches – never can keep the difference between the two straight – that cause my anxiety to rise.  Last night, I was musing over this problem and I realized that the terrifying thing about tornadoes is that I can’t control them.  I have no way to guarantee the safety of my family if one hits.  We are completely in the hands of God.  Of course, when I actually had that thought I saw the foolishness of my isolated fear.  After all, whether I realize it or not, we are completely in the hands of God every single moment of our lives.  This is at once a wonderful and terrible thought:  wonderful if you believe He has your complete best interest in mind; terrible if you like to imagine that you have some control over your life.  At any given moment, a crisis of any kind can whirl into our lives and reveal the fact that we are completely at the mercy of our Creator.  Again, the nature of our relationship with Him will determine how we feel about embracing this idea.  I have to admit, as much as I love the Lord and see Him as my loving Heavenly Father, I also really love the idea of having a storm cellar where I can go and be safe from whatever happens.  Ideally this would be a charming, comfortable space stocked with everything my family could possibly need to survive any type of calamity.  It would be so easy to put my trust in a place like that.  Maybe that is why the Lord hasn’t seen fit to get my husband on board with building one!  What I hear the Lord saying today is that He wants to be my storm cellar, my hiding place in time of trouble.  He wants me to trust Him with the ones I love and believe that He will bring us through whatever crisis may befall us.  Security will not be found in a list of 47 essential items.  Any supply we may put our trust in is subject to destruction or theft.  In the end, all we have for sure is our hope in the Lord.  We have to believe that He is all we need.  Dear sisters, I don’t know what high winds are blowing in your life this morning, but I do know how scary it is.  I’ve wept as I’ve written today and I’m not sure if it is my flesh, my spirit or both.  I only know it is hard to say, “Yes, Lord, I trust You – with everything,” but I believe with all my heart that it is the only way to survive, thrive, and walk in the joy and peace our Abba Father means for us to have. 

In His unshakeable love,

Jennifer

For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory.  Psalm 32:7  New Living Translation