Category Archives: Suffering/Trials

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What Life’s Storms Reveal

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Only one week after the Microburst, another bigger storm swept down the entire East Coast that hit our town as well. This time, instead of about 50,000 without power, it was estimated that in our area alone there were 900,000 without power. There were two known deaths from this storm. We wandered down Route 50 in search of power, only to find our neighboring cities of Bowie, Lanham, and beyond in just as bad shape as we were. The few businesses that had power also had lines of people snaking out their doors, waiting for their turn to enter the air conditioned building where they could ‘rest a spell.’

This time around, the “good attitude” was a little harder to muster, I admit, after two days without power, as we were still recovering from the previous week’s disaster and our tree was still our “ever-present reality.” As they say, “When it rains, it pours.” For our area there has been a literal fulfillment of this the last few years with a record-breaking snowfall dubbed “Snowmaggedeon,”an earthquake (which we were not used to), Hurricane Irene, and now these two storms. Grace even made up a song about Pepco, our power company, which shows that even our three year old has internalized our need for power 🙂

Last time, I shared a personal testimony about how the Microburst caused me to pause and consider what is really important in life. What it came down to was firstly, “Where do I stand with Christ?” and “Who are the people in my life?” God and people. Really, this is what matters. Since the second storm, I have pondered what else I can glean from natural disasters as well as other “storms of life.” You know, TRIALS. TESTS. THE LIKE. 🙂

It also made me recall that I have seen some pretty amazing disasters and stood in their wreckage, held their victims while they mourned, and surveyed incalculable loss. The first that came to mind was the Haiti Earthquake a few years back. We had the call to go from a friend there who had lost his wife and his home. He begged for our assistance. How could we refuse?  As we went, we surveyed the damage, a lot of which looked like this:

 

 

Nearly the entire country slept in tents, which was a physical picture of the temporary nature of our earthly dwelling places:

Then there was the Tsunami of 2005, where, during an around the world trip to 20 countries, Joel and I had the privilege of assisting folks in Khao Lak, Thailand, where damage looked like this:

 

In the rubble of disaster, it is easy to become disillusioned and think “Where is God in all of this?” I can tell you from personal experience, that in those storms, in the midst of all the damage and destruction and chaos, God was strikingly and tangibly present. We just had to open our eyes and ears. Sometimes, as in our disaster, the physical clean up and recovery takes awhile but is more of an inconvenience than anything. In other disasters, there is virtually nothing left and nowhere, it seems, to go. Everything everywhere has been destroyed. Those left to sort of their “new” reality in the midst of such devastation are often at a breaking point. Where do you turn when everything around you, everything that you have stood upon and relied on for survival is gone?

God alone is the answer.

“Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; He lifts his voice, the earth melts.The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” – Psalm 46:6-7

He is Emmanuel – God with us. God with us in disaster. God with us in pain. God with us in trial and temptation and failure. God with us when all have deserted us. He never fails. And because of this unalterable faithfulness, there is only one proper response: joyful worship! I have seen some of the purest, truest worship in these places of devastation and disaster. Out of the rubble, worship rises. A new foundation is built on nothing but God alone.

What about you? 

What is shaking in your life? What has been destroyed? What, when the pressure and the storms of life came pressing in, was found unreliable, unsound, unable to stand?

We each have the opportunity when things in our lives begin to shake to listen to what God might be saying to us through the turmoil:

“Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire. ” – Hebrews 12:25-29

Sometimes, the call is to stand and endure the storm. Sometimes, it is to pick up a shovel and clean up the mess. Sometimes, it is to re-evaluate a faulty foundation and begin to build again on what will remain. And oddly enough, when that call comes, there is often a sense of hope, of relief, of a fresh start with a new vision for something greater and more enduring than what held us up before.

 

 

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Fifteen Minutes and Eternity

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You never quite know when you wake up in the morning what is going to happen to you that day. But one thing is important to remember:

God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah – Psalm 46:1-3

 It’s in the small choices and small decisions that we face every day where we have a choice – a choice to be fearful based on circumstances or to be full of trust and faith in the reliability and faithfulness of a Person – Jesus Christ, our dearest friend. It’s the small choices to trust God that help us when the storms of life come in strong.

Daily I flounder and fail and yet He remains strong and steadfast. And even when the earth is removed, He stands firm and constant, caring about me. Loving me. Protecting me. Never leaving my side.

This has been my testimony today and I am bursting to sing it on the rooftops (or write it on my blog) of this one thing that stays true: God is pure goodness.

At 7:30 pm two nights ago, we left the Cheverly Pool due to a rumble of thunder. Looked like there might be one of our frequent summer storms brewing, so we headed home. No sooner had we returned home and put the kids in the tub, when out of nowhere, a Microburst swept into our little community…something we just weren’t expecting. I was on the phone with KitchenAid, seeking to secure a replacement food processor since mine had just broken. Joel was bathing the kids. I stepped out onto the sunporch thinking that I could get a little quiet to have the phone conversation. I looked out the windows and immediately knew that was the last place I should be. The wind blew hard and sideways, the sky looked green, hail was coming down, and branches began to break up and smack against the windows. In a split second, Joel yelled “this looks like a tornado! get in the basement!” We pulled two very wet and very naked children out of the tub and hauled ourselves into the southwest corner of our basement (which, by the way, is the place to be, in a tornado).

Let me share with you something in a moment of pure honesty and transparency – when you are holding two wet, terrified babes in your arms with another growing in your belly, huddled in the corner of the basement, listening to what sounds like rocks beating against your house in pure darkness, what is important and unimportant is totally evident and unmistakable.

The babes were important. The house was not. Nor the car. Or the lovely garden. Or even the fun swing in the back (which, i will say, did survive).

So as Grace and I sat there in the darkness, I lead her in a prayer – for what was important. For our neighbors safety, for people who might have been caught outside during the storm, for our home to not collapse on us (because it felt that it likely might) – but most importantly, we cried out for the protection, deliverance, and mercy of our God and for his angels to surround our home.

When we emerged, we found what you see pictured above – our large, 80-100 year old oak tree in the front yard, cut in two and lying in the middle of the road. We were told by our Mayor that our tree was the largest that fell in our neighborhood. Miraculously, no one was injured. No home was damaged. One car was completely totaled and another damaged (Grace’s new word for the day was ‘damaged’). Our own new car stood untouched in our driveway, mere inches from the base of the tree’s now de-captitated trunk.

Along with the neighbors on our street who began to surround us and help us sort through the mess, we marveled at the fact that if the tree had fallen in any other direction, it would have most certainly landed on one of the houses. We could have been killed. We were spared.

In a moment, in a matter of 15 minutes time, we were both impacted and spared, sobered and satisfied, shaken yet whole. We stood in awe at the mercy of God. We gave thanks repeatedly for His protection of us and our neighbors. And I remembered as I looked at our tree that life is indeed a vapor and that I am not promised tomorrow.

But God wanted me to have tomorrow for now. And for this, I am soaking in the rays of today’s sunshine with fresh gratitude.

And so, as the sun went down, I lit the candles out of necessity to see and realized what I was actually doing and what day it was.

It was sundown on the Sabbath. And to Grace and to God I whispered with awe, “Shabbat Shalom” – Sabbath Peace rest upon our home. And indeed it did.

 

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The Glory of the Overlook

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“Good sense makes one slow to anger and it is his glory is to overlook an offense.” – Proverbs 19:11

I have been reading a book called The Respect Dare, which is a 40 day devotional/workbook on growing to improve your relationship with God and your husband through understanding the language of respect. I read “Dare 9” yesterday, which was “Project Overlook.”

When we seek to grow into the image of our Heavenly Father, we learn that He is “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6)

Our God, who knows all things, including the justness of any wrath He may feel, chooses to be calm and to wait in exacting that wrath and punishment. Why? He is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He is merciful and gracious. His mercy causes him not to pretend my sin does not exist, but to deal kindly and gently with me in it, bearing long when I find myself stepping into the same pit again and again, eager to hold my hand and help me out.

His mercy shows me that the last thing God would do to me as His child is say, “Well, you deserve that pit. and I knew you were going to fall into that pit. So just stay there awhile and soak in the shame and embarrassment of it all – it will be good for you.” No, He wants to lift me up and out as soon as possible, to lift up my face towards Him and Heaven once again so that I see Him and all He offers as so much more desirable than that pit.

For me, often, that pit is having to be right. Can anyone relate to this?

I have learned that I like to be right – sometimes I spiritualize it by saying that rightness equals justice (which it does in some circumstances, of course) but when it comes to relating to my husband, kids, and the guy who cut me off in traffic or the woman who came up to me in the store to instruct me in my parenting, I justify my wrath. I am also much nicer and only inwardly fume when strangers wrong me (like the driver or the woman in the store), smiling curtly and moving along my way, but when it comes to those I’m closest to – I often let my thoughts be known when I should simply pause, wait a spell, relax a minute, and see how things sort themselves out.

Another Proverbs I read yesterday backed this up: “A food gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.” – Proverbs 19:11

It is my job to correct, discipline, and instruct my children in the ways of wisdom. It is also my job to make sure that when instruction or correction is needed, it is not done in a harsh way, with a harsh tone, in a condescending fashion which lets them know that “if they just would have listened to me in the first place, they would have never gotten into that mess – again.” God doesn’t deal this way with me!

It is my job to communicate with my husband when I have been hurt or need to talk something through. But before I vent all my frustrations to him, I ought to take a moment to examine the situation. “Is it worth creating conflict?” “Will it blow over on its own?” “Is this an isolated incident where it would serve me well to believe the best that nothing negative or wrong towards me was intended?” The large majority of the time, my major offense actually shows itself to be small and insignificant with the reality of time and a steadfast relationship to wash over the rocks of my offense.

What happens when we overlook a wrong that someone has done to us?

Firstly, and most important, we please God by obeying His Word and following His example.

Secondly, we don’t engage or embroil ourselves in unnecessary conflict but instead choose the way of peace.

Thirdly, we learn to hold our tongues and our feelings (in a good way) before the Lord, watching and observing how things will pan out with a heart full of hope in a positive outcome.

Lastly, when I thought about what it means to “overlook” offenses and wrongs, I thought of a view I have seen almost every year of my entire life on the way to our family cabin in Cashiers, North Carolina. After a long car ride through winding hills and up a mountainside, we stop to stretch our legs and take in the view. And it is glorious (as you can see from the picture above).

So it is with our Christian walks. When we place our feet upon the mountains of our offenses and anger and choose to look up and out at the glorious view of our lives, framed by gratefulness, we stand in awe of God’s majesty and handiwork.

Praying for you today, friend, as you choose to overlook offense and into greatness.

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