Tuesday, May 29, 2012

I'll Praise You in the Storm

As I thought about what it meant to praise Him in the storm...I thought about actual storms. I thought about natural disasters. Hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, floods. Natural disasters. No one causes those horrible storms. No one wished these monstrosities to happen. They just do.

Even more that I got from praising Him in the storm...is what we do in the middle of the storm. I have the choice to complain that there is too much rain, that the lightening scares me, that there is a hole in my umbrella, or that rain gets in my boots. I can choose to find no hope the middle of a disaster. But then, I am reminded of the old quote from my all time favorite movie, Lord of the Rings. Frodo, having been entrusted with this ring, the ring that all of evil is searching for, and at any point Frodo could lose his life. His fate, laid in the hands of the Ring. He is sitting in the Mines of Moria, and he confides in Gandalf. "I wish the Ring had never come to me, I wish none of this had happened.". Gandalf, in his calm demeanor, looked at Frodo and said, "So do those who live to see such times, but it is not for them to decide. All we can decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

We all have a choice. God sometimes takes away the sins but never heals the sickness. I think about the man that was nailed to the cross next to the Savior of the World. Did Christ raise that man from the dead? Did He get him down from that cross? No, because sometimes we have to go through death to find life. It is always a painful process, but in the end..we are rewarded.

So in the storms of this life. Praise HIM.

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass..it's learning to dance in the rain." <3

I love you.
Your sister in Christ,
T