Thursday, July 7, 2011

Nothing ever looks the same after a storm.



As I was worshiping God this morning, my thoughts were running rampant as I collected all the dead limbs that had fallen across the path I walked.  They were the result of one of the worst tornados to hit our nation in a very long time. I could tell God was speaking; I just couldn't bring my thoughts together. So I prayed and asked God to gather my thoughts that were scattered on the four winds and bring them together. I continued to praise him and then God answered my prayer with a short sentence. 

Nothing ever looks the same after a storm.

I have seen many storms in my life time.  While in the midst of the storm, you don't often see change taking place, but after the storm you see change the changes. Storms always bring change. I remember our last ice storm.  It brought down one of our trees that was almost 4' in diameter as well as other trees and branches.  It took over a week working every day to clean up the limbs in our mobile home park.

Then there was the legendary snow storm.  I say "legendary" because it was one of those dreaded wife things - you know, they say something idiotic like "don't park the truck in the pole barn.  It could collapse" and I say something very intelligent like, "it has been standing for a lot of years and has seen many a snow storm."   Then I add a smirk so that she can see my superior intellect bleeding through. It only took a week to dig the truck out from under the collapsed pole barn, but I've gained a hundred pounds from eating all that humble pie these many months since!  But I will not be defeated - every bite I take is with a smirk, hoping she grows tired of baking the same old thing. 

The change the snow storm brought is obvious.  Where a red truck once sat under a pole barn, there is now a white truck sitting under the hot blazing sun - a constant reminder of my wife's lucky guess.  On my face remains a really sad smirk!

This last storm was a tornado.  It was almost a mile wide and around fourteen miles long.  It started on one side of town, went right through the middle of town, and didn't lift up until it had gone through another small town.  Around thirty percent of our town destroyed.  Eighty percent of the small town next to us was destroyed.  It left in it's path over three billion dollars worth of damage.  And it only took 30 minutes. That night found us clearing debris out of the streets for the fire department as they went house to house looking for survivors. The next morning we hit the streets again, but this time there was nothing hid by the darkness of night.  As we drove through this town where I have spent the last eighteen years driving the streets, we had trouble navigating.  There were no landmarks to go by.  Slabs were wiped clean.  Not even street sign survived the destruction.  When we looked at our GPS, we were shocked to find that we were on a main road, one that we knew well.  The landscape will never be the same; it will be forever changed because storms bring about change. 

Bill Davis the chief meteorologist with the weather service in Springfield said the tornado was an act of nature.  The fact that so many more people were not killed was an act of God. In the years to come people will drive through this town and see brand new houses, not knowing of the a old houses that were destroyed, many of them old and dilapidated.  They won't remember Main Street past in it's hey day.  All they will see is brand new buildings with a modern look, not realizing  the loss of life or the many who lost everything because of the storm.  All they will see is the change.

Most often in the wake of life's storms, mixed with the debris, you will find God's blessings.  I have been confronted with many storms in life and each one brought about change for the good in my life. Nobody sees the old Bobby, just the change. My wife has been there to go through some of those storms with me and she has seen the change, but she has also seen the landscape before the storm.  Most storms seem to last a lifetime but they are in reality just a brief moment in time that brings about change that lasts a lifetime. 

Often, we can point to one particular storm that brought a complete change to our lives. It left you stronger, more resilient, but most importantly with a greater trust in God and a deeper love for Him. If we will take the time too sift through the debris of the storm we will always find another piece to the puzzle that will give us a greater understating of God and a better understanding of ourselves. 

The purpose of the storm is always the same - to bring about change.  So embrace the storm and except the change that it brings. God is bringing about an internal change with eternal results.

Psalms 107:25 - "These see  the works of the LORD , and his wonders  in the deep.  For he commandeth, and raiseth  the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.  Oh that men would praise  the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men