It's Raining, It's Pouring

Here is something I wrote quite a few years back. At the time I was working full-time in a drama ministry company, and I had just gone through a long season of personal struggles. The details of that aren't important, but what is important is the fact that struggle and heartbreak and heartache are something WE ALL can relate to. They come and go in life. It seems in life you are either in the midst of a struggle, just coming out of a struggle, or getting ready to enter into a one! The good news is we have a God who doesn't want us to go through them alone! The Lord taught me a lot about storms that year. Just in case anyone is going through that right now, here is something I hope will encourage you.

From August 2005: There was a lot going on with me this past summer, but the Lord just carried me through constantly and taught me so much that I don’t think I’ve even processed it all yet. Recently I read Isaiah 49:10-11, which says, “….He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up.” Life will always have mountains in them, mountains that are obstacles in our life or hardship or personal struggle. God doesn’t want us to run from them or face them on our own. Instead we have to face them in Christ. They are God’s mountains and they are there for a reason, making us who He wants us to be. He will lead and guide us to where we need to be through our circumstances. As that verse promises, He will eventually turn those mountains into roads—a very clear pathway of the Lord’s purpose in our lives. He will lead us to springs of water—refreshing, renewal, rest!! (Lot’s of good R-words).  So I guess I feel like I’ve been lost in the middle of a ton of mountains, and maybe I’m starting to see a road up ahead, or a refreshing spring of water.

You can probably relate, but most every season in my life and ministry is characterized by something new the Lord has taught me or brought me through. They all have their own times of struggle, renewal, passion, maybe stagnation…seasons are about change and growth. When I first got home from our last day of working at camp, I sat on my couch for two days (not two whole days straight, mind you, but for long time periods each day) while a storm came through. I love storms, and this one was so beautiful. It was loud and powerful, the rainfall was massive and the thunder was deafening. The sun went away and it was dark and gray. I guess I loved it because for me it symbolized, perhaps, coming to the end of all my storms for this season, and waiting to see what will come after. Storms, no matter how dark and dreary they are at the time, just make everything new. They rain down and renew everything. They make everything more beautiful after they are over. The air smells fresher, the sun and sky seem more clear and blue, the grass and trees turn green, and our cars get cleaner.J So remember the next time you are in the midst of a storm, call on the Lord! Seek Him through it. Ask Him what He wants to teach you during it. Thank Him for it, and for His love and care that never leave. And remember that the dry, crisp brown grass in your life from the winter can't turn into a lush green without those spring storms!