Traversing Life's Storms

An airplane navigating through thunderheads

Earlier this week I was travelling from the East Coast back to Dallas. It was a perfect flying day. The weather was partly cloudy on the entire trip. However, the trip was not the straight line between the East Coast airport and DFW airport. Typical for Summertime travel, there were huge thunder heads along the way. Our pilot made a zig zag pattern to fly around the tallest thunderheads. I love travelling at 30K+ feet. I have always been fascinated with the view of the clouds from that height. They all look like balls of cotton, but the thunderheads appear majestic from above but can cause havoc either by flying through them (which can be unavoidable sometimes) or as they hammer the terrain below with violent storms.

As I was contemplating the view from above, I thought that the clear spaces and the thunderheads are like our life journey. We have peaceful times interspersed with times of turbulence. How we respond to those turbulent times impacts our life’s journey overall quality and direction, our careers, our relationship with others, and our relationship with our Creator. Those turbulent times are where we learn the life lessons that mold us into stronger or better people or crush us beyond repair. It really boils down to trusting our Creator to lead us through times of trouble or trying to survive on our own abilities.

It reminded me of a poem I saw recently that was entitled “Focus on Me, Not the Storm.”

“God is saying to you today

I want you to look back over your life and remember the times I made a way where

you didn’t see a way.

Remember those times I put you at the right place at the right time.

Think about the times I opened doors of promotion for you, turned problems around

and protected you.

I am telling you today:

Don’t focus on your problems.

Focus on Me, Your Heavenly Father.

What I have in store for you is bigger, better, and more rewarding than anything you

have ever seen in the past.

I will answer your prayers.”

We normally pray to be delivered from our troubles, which happens occasionally, usually dependent on the severity of the troubles we face. More often God is with us through our troubles ---- as many of us remember from our childhood recitation of Psalms 23, the story of the Good Shepard

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness, For His name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil, for You are with me;

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You have anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Just yesterday in my daily quiet time, I ran across a verse Psalm 34:19 that stated a similar fact, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him (her) out of them all.”

Life is turbulent for us all. Our culture bombards us continuously with information --- the good, the bad, and the ugly. We must constantly determine what is real vs what is fake. Even formally trusted sources get it wrong sometimes.

I believe that there are some good habits that can help us weather the daily bombardment and life’s storms ---- as well as the successes.

My formula for weathering the storm goes something like this

• Get an adequate amount of rest: Your body needs to rest and recycle!

• Make the time to engage in some sort / degree of physical activity. Proper breathing and getting the heart to pump vigorously is important for long term health. The quality of your life later depends on how you take care of yourself today.

• Eat healthy ---- in terms of quantity, types of food, processed vs fresh food.

• Start your time each day with a few minutes of meditation / daily devotional. Clearing your mind of the stress and cares of the upcoming day requires a reset each day. Personally, a daily devotional settles my mind / spirit. I am always amazed at how frequently the devotional seems to target some issue or problem I am facing that day. I do believe that God engineers our circumstances. Getting direction from above helps me make better, more confident decisions.

• Say a heartfelt prayer. Too often we look at God as being a sort of vending machine in the heavens. We expect to ask and receive. Prayer is much more about aligning our thoughts and spirit with God’s. I have a three-fold way of aligning myself with where God is leading me:

  o   A prayer that God allow me to see the world through Jesus’ eyes, hear it with His voice, touch it with His hands, speak to it with His words, love it with His heart, have the mind of Christ in my thinking that day, and to carry the Gospel of truth with me wherever I go

  o   A prayer to put on the Armor of God from Ephesians 6: 10-17 by speaking those verses to resist in these evil days and to stand firm in my faith (v13). Then specifically asking Him to “gird my loins with truth” --- Father help me to walk in the truth that I know; “put on the breastplate of righteousness” --- Father protect my emotions; “shod my feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace” --- Father help me to stand on a firm foundation and proclaim, protect, and defend the Gospel of my Lord Jesus Christ; “take up the Shield of faith” –- Father help me to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one; “take the helmet of salvation” – Father protect my thinking; “the Sword of the Spirit” --- Father help me to use it as both an offensive and defensive weapon to be able to lead someone from enslavement to the saving knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ.  

  o   Pray for a continuous filling of the Holy Spirit. Pray that the Holy Spirit continue to transform my life from the inside out and continue to mold me into the man that You intended me to be. Pray that through that transformative power that the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control) be evident in my life and that I would be a channel of blessing to those around me today.

  
  

Like the pilot in the plane that was directing the plane through the clouds and avoiding the thunderheads / thunderstorms, I have learned that I need to trust my Creator to help me in Traversing Life’s Storms. I cannot do it on my own. He knows my course and destination and how life’s experiences are molding me into the man He intended me to be. Without His guidance, I am adrift in life’s storms without a sense of direction nor the skills to get me to the destination I need to reach. Most paths are not a straight line between two points. We frequently need course adjustments to get us to our destination --- like a GPS. We just need to rely on our Heavenly GPS to get us to our destination safely.

He promised to be with us through the storm, but we just must trust Him.