Unpredictable weather

I usually love songs that have to do with storms and how God takes us through them.

Still (hillsong) paints a picture of oceans rising and thunders roaring, but with us riding the storm with God. Praise You In This Storm (casting crowns) tells of someone who almost gave up in the midst of the storm, but is still able to praise God despite their circumstances. Bring the Rain (mercyme) is about how God is bigger than our pain, and it even goes so far as to asking for rain to come if that is how they can praise the Lord.

Besides the common weather element in each of these songs, at the core of these songs is a soul who sees that God is bigger than any storm, any struggle that life brings, any circumstance we face. It is only in these difficult situations that we see what we are made of. It is also in these times when we see what God is made of, and how faithful He is. It's only in trying times that our faith is stretched and our eyes opened.

More times than not, we do not have control over our circumstances. The storms that come are never scheduled. And we are never prepared for what is to come. What we do have control over is how we respond, and what we can learn from it.

In John C. Maxwell's book, "Developing the Leader Within You", in a chapter on problem solving, speaks of how many outstanding people have overcome problems in their lives for the better.

"Bury a person in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty, and you have an Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes a Franklin D. Roosevelt. Burn him so severely that the doctors say he will never walk again, and you have Glenn Cunningham, who set the world's one-mile record in 1934. Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you have a Booker T. Washington, a Marian Anderson, a George Washington Carver, or a Martin Luther King Jr. Call him a slow learner and retarded--writing him off as uneducable--and you have an Albert Einstein. Dolly Parton sums it all up with these words: 'The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.' "

I often hear people say.. God does not give you more than you can handle. I'm not sure where the bible says this.. but what I do know is that God sometimes does give us more than you can handle. And it's not to say we are unlucky because of it. Situations that are bigger than what we can handle force us to stretch, grow and learn.

I really like how Mark Hall from Casting Crowns put it, when he describes the premise behind their song "Praise You In This Storm":

If there ever were a test of our faith if there ever were a test of the motives of our worship it is when a storm rolls into our lives. We watched and prayed for a precious little girl named Erin Edwards struggle with a deadly disease for several years. The courage, the witness, and the worship of Erin's mother Laurie inspired this song. Sometimes God calms our storms. Sometimes He chooses to ride them with us. - Mark Hall (Casting Crowns)

*rebecca

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"I lift my eyes up to the mountains -- where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth."
Psalm 121: 1-2

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I sat up one night at the beginning of the school year when I was chair of our Christian fellowship at Queen's and I cried because I was so overwhelmed. In my initial discussion with all the leaders, I found there were so many ideas which were to take the fellowship in various directions. After a few weeks of complete exhaustion in trying to think of fresh new programs, I was at a loss with regards to what I would do next. I didn't know what to feel because I was feeling it all at once. I realized after a while that I simply doubted myself and it was the first time I'd ever doubted my own capability. I sat in one corner of my room curled up in a ball, trembling. I was so scared and I asked God 'what is it that you want me to do!?'

The response I got was so simple. The Lord said 'This doubt you're feeling is EXACTLY the place you need to be in. You're starting to see now that you really can't do it all and that's the beginning of humility.' At that moment, 2 verses came flooding in...

'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom'

'My [God's] grace is sufficient for you.
My power is made perfect in your weakness.'

I realized at that point that because I was (and still am) so prideful, it's only in the STORM and in the moments when I feel insecure that God is tugging at my heart and truly giving me the opportunity to come before Him and learn to be in awe of Him. It's in the moments when I'm most afraid that I am able to begin to learn to fear the Lord.

*sam