Several years ago, when we lived in Eagle Pointe apartments, a tornado came to Knoxville and passed right over us. It had not yet touched down and I couldn't tear myself away from looking at it, in order to get into the safety of the basement with my husband and daughter.
My husband kept yelling for me to get down there, but that swirling angry, grey-green sky had me mesmerized. Maybe it comes from watching the Wizard of Oz so much as a kid, but I kept waiting to see if it would drop a funnel. It eventually did a few miles down the road.
I think if I'd seen the funnel, I would have gotten into the basement. I can't say for sure, though. Like I said, I like storms.
But life storms? Those can stop anytime. Bills mount like a tidal wave coming from me quitting work due to all the fatigue and pain and compressed nerves from fibromyalgia, arthritis and bulging discs. There's scattered emotional debris from losing my grandmother, from watching my dad suffer from diabetes, and now my mom having cancer. Yes, these storms I want to stop.
So, I pray they do. Each time I think about it though, I realize that often we want to blame God for sending the storm into our life. Does He? Does He send the storm with any more than intent than Mother Nature? Or does He just allow them, waiting to see our response like the disciples with Jesus in the boat?
Jesus said they had "little faith" and then He calmed the storm for them. Was their faith "little" because they didn't think they'd be safe, or because they didn't ask God to calm the storm themselves?
Maybe we get storms in our life in order to seek God to help us survive it or it's aftermath. But, maybe it's to see if we learn how to say "Peace! Be still!" right in the midst of it all.
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