First it's warm, then it's cold. The sky looks ominous and the Oklahoma wind shows no signs of slowing down. Storm season is beginning to pick up, but many people have already felt the repercussions of these natural phenomenons.
Moving to Oklahoma for school, I expected nothing less than crazy weather, so I'd like to say I was prepared for the adventure of it all, but I never realized how personal storms can be to people. In my own experience, I've never been dramatically affected by the destructive power of a storm. I have some pretty good stories about three-hour tornado drills and power outages, but the only true loss due to a storm I've had is a really big tree in my family's old yard. And man, did that tree have some pretty sweet rope-swing potential! As I sat in the basement of my freshman dorm with over 100 other girls in a tornado warning that just happened to fall on finals week, everything was put into perspective for me. I wasn't necessarily scared of the approaching tornado, mostly excited and ready to get out of that basement, but it wasn't the same for those around me that had lost something in theses storms. Maybe it was a house, or the memories that were in it. Maybe it was the sense of normalcy and the idea that their lives were once stable and going good. Either way, some of these people had experienced the loss of life as they knew it, causing change and for things to never be the same. If that were me, I might be afraid too.
Not having experienced the loss of something from a literal storm definitely created a barrier of understanding between myself and others, but then I realized we all learn to weather our own types of storms. We all struggle through something, even if it's not the same as the person next to you. While storms are notorious for their destructive nature, tearing apart peoples lives, they also have a quality of nourishment and growth. These qualities can be representative of nature of God. God has the power to change our lives in an instant, in ways we might see as devastating, but it is through these changes that God gives us strength and hope. We may not see it that way as we are sitting in the middle of the storm, unable to see our way out, but the way we choose to react to our circumstances in light of our present situations will result in either personal growth or stagnancy. God says he wont give us more than we can handle, and he allows us to experience trials and tribulations so that we can learn from them, and teach others to do the same. From suffering to comfort, and comfort to hope, the storms we all face are meant to prepare us for the realities of life, death and loss, so we can bring hope to our peers that will inevitably face the same storms.
In Jeremiah 17:7-8, it says "But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit."
With that in mind, as you face your own figurative, or literal storms, remember their purpose and the hope you have for the future. You may have to go through a little clean up, but just imagine how nice the flowers look after a good storm. Breath, and admire the power of God as the next front of storms roll in. They may be a little crazy, but they sure are cool, and that is why I love storms.
