In The Storm

Last weekend as I sat in a canoe on a perfectly smooth lake watching the sun dip behind the mountains, God began to remind me of how He works. For now, the sky was clear and the lake was smooth, the sun reflected off the lake and the fish were jumping. Nothing spoke of the storm that was coming in a few hours.

Life can be like that sometimes. Everything can be calm and peaceful and going well. A few hours later, the storm comes and nothing is right anymore. We had no warning, no indication it was coming until it was on top of us.

When the rain come last weekend, it poured. There was no way not to get wet. The surface of the lake was now pock-marked by rain drops. The sky was dark and full of clouds. No starts or moon to be seen.

Sometimes life gets dark. The storm brings the darkness in. We can't see what is coming next, or where to take the next step. We have to choose to just hold on and trust. Grab hold of God and not let go.

Mid-morning the next day the rain finally stopped. The clouds parted to reveal the sun. Once again the surface of the lake became like glass. The storm had passed.

Puddles remained. Lush green grass. The water bringing life and nourishing growth.

We usually don't being to see it until we get to the other side. The storm may be difficult when we're in the midst of it and just trying to survive. But, when we get through to the other side, we start to see where the storm fed growth and brought life to areas that were dry and dying.

We may not enjoy walking through the storm. (Camping in a rain storm is not exactly enjoyable.) We may wish it was over sooner. But, God brings good out of the storm.

He uses them to teach us, to grow us, to make us into who He wants us to be. The storms are a part of life that God has plans to use.

Philippians 1:6 says, "Being confident of this, that He Who began a good work in you will carry it onto completion until the day of Christ Jesus." God is doing His work in us. And He uses the things He allows in our lives, including the storms, to complete His good work in us.

Our Need for Others

We live in a culture that teaches us to be proud of doing things without a need for others. We praise individual accomplishments. Even on a team, we look for what we can consider the most important individual contribution.

We're taught that asking for help is a sign of weakness. That we can't need other people. That the way to do it is to figure it out on our own.

And this works, at least to a degree, when life is going as we planned. When things are going smoothly and predictably we can manage on our own.

But, what happens when life throws something unexpected our way? What about the times when something happens and you're not sure you can keep going?

Those are the times when we can more clearly realize the ways our culture ahs it wrong. Those are the times when we can see our need our need for other people in our lives.

Yes, in those times we need God and we need to depend on Him completely. Yes, in those times we can't get through them without God.

But, God has designed us to need people. Often the way God helps us get through those times is by using the people around us to be His hands and feet in our lives - to show us His love.

Hebrews 10:24-25 says,

" And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deed, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

We need to have people around us who can encourage us, love us, buid us up walk with us through life. We were made to need this. It is God's plan.

I've been reminded of the importance of this in the last couple months. Life threw some unexpected things my way and quickly became clear I wasn't going to get through it all on my own - or even just me and God. I needed to allow the community God had placed around me to walk through it with me - to encourage me and love me and help me keep on going when I couldn't on my own. God was choosing to use them to get me through this time.

As I've reflected on this, I've been able to see a beautiful picture of how God intends for His people to live, of how God created us to care for one another. A picture that is so different than the one our culture tells us we should live by.

A Letter to a Younger Me

In a few places lately, I've come across letters people wrote to their younger self - the most recent time being over at The Single Woman. It's interesting to read their thoughts of what they would tell their younger self and it's prompted my own thoughts on the topic.

I've been thinking about what I would write to my younger self - specifically myself ten years ago. Ten years ago, I was just finishing up my second to last semester of college. I was five months away from graduating with a business degree. I had my plans for the future - plans that were ultimately different than my reality now. There was nothing wrong with them; they just weren't what God had for me.


Dear Younger Self,

Right now, you're looking at your graduation date with excitement and a bit of fear for what the future will hold. The culmination of four years of hard work. You have plans for the kind of job you're going to get, to get married. All of them are good things, but don't hold on so tightly to them that you miss God's plans for you. He has some things in store for you that you could never dream of on your own.

Take the time to enjoy your last semester of school. Go deep in your classes. Soak in all you can learn. It will be a long time before you can embrace studying and learning this way again.

Invest in the friendships you have with those in the dorm. Don't take your studies too seriously to go on adventures with them and have those late night conversations. Some of the friendships you are investing in now, will continue to be important ones in future years. They're the people you will call when life gets hard and you need encouragement or advice. Take the time now to go deep in those friendships.

Some of those friendships will drift apart after you all move on from living in dorm together. Invest the time you have in those friendships now anyway. Those people are in your life for a reason right now. They will impact your life now for the future. You will become who you are going to be, in part, because of the time you spend together now.

You have your plans for what you want to do for a career and where you want to serve at church when you go home. Be willing to allow God to take you in a different direction - to show you something different. You'll save yourself so much frustration and boredom if you go with God in His direction right away - rather than fight for your way. Don't hold onto your plans too tightly. Let God change them.

Your plan to get married and have a family of your own won't happen in this time frame of ten years. You'll have two choices in how you deal with this: 1) You can get frustrated with waiting and stop living life because you don't have what you want. Or, 2) You can choose to live life to the full, to do what you love and what God has given you to do, all while still longing to get married. It's your choice what you do, but one will give you a life of meaning and one will give you a life of regrets.

Your life in ten years is going to look very different than you imagine it will right now. But, you will know God's faithfulness in a way you can't understand right now. Whatever happens, don't allow the storms of life to cause you to doubt or turn away from God. Keep holding on to God and trusting Him with your future. You'll never regret doing that.

Sincerely,
Your Older Self

Snow

Branches bend low

With the weight of the snow

A blanket of white

Reflecting the light

 

Of sun brightly shining

Each step I take crunching

On fresh fallen snow

The world seems to glow

 

Light all around me

Beauty is all I see

Quietly waiting

Silence not breaking

 

The branch soon lets go

A fresh shower of snow

Branches so green

Are now what is seen

Seasons

Snow-capped mountains

Fading into clouds come low

Grey skies above

The world seems small today

 

Changing seasons

Summer becomes fall

Fall turns into winter

 Temperatures dropping

 

Bare tree trunks and branches

Leaves long gone

The death that always comes

The death that winter brings

 

At least it looks that way

But deep inside

Life still breathes

Waiting for spring to come

 

A world covered in white

Until the day comes

That it all changes

Snow melts

 

To reveal new life

That was buried deep within

Bursting forth in glorious colour

Bright, beautiful, new

 

Without the winter

Without the death

That winter brings

We would miss spring

 

The new life bursting forth

Would be unnoticed

In the busy-ness of life

As we hurry through each day

 

We all have favourite seasons

Each beautiful in its own way

And each one needed

To see the beauty of the others

 

Snow-capped mountains

Reflect the brilliant sun

Blue skies above

The world seems big today

 

Spring has come

New life has come

Seasons

Sometimes it seems like life goes in seasons. Some we feel really alive and some we don't. That can be a way we describe our walks with God.

For most of my life I would get frustrated when the season of my walk with God seemed more like winter. I didn't understand why those times existed. I thought they were a waste of time in our lives.

But, then I started to notice something that happens in nature with the changing of the seasons. In winter things die or go into hibernation. They often get covered by the snow. And then spring comes. With spring comes new growth. Things bloom again.

I began to see that it's similar to what happens in our walks with God. After those seasons where things felt dead is when the new growth began. It's when God began to do new things.

And when my perspective changed on those things, is when I stopped getting frustrated with those times. It doesn't mean I like them. I still wish there was a way to avoid them. But seeing them as the precursor to God doing something new makes them easier to walk through.