Tammy On Tuesday – Life Storms

PINIMAGE

The other day I found myself humming a song I learned as a little girl:

The sea of life is raging, the storms clouds round me roll.


I’m tossed about in turmoil and it’s growing very cold.


By myself I’ll never make it, but this one thing I know
.

When I speak the name of Jesus the storms clouds have to go.

When I say Master, my sorrows disappear.

When I say Father He drives away my fears.


When I say Savior, my blinded eyes can see.


When I say Jesus He speaks sweet peace to me.
                                                

~ He Speaks Peace To Me

I had been looking at the weather map and the bottom eastern third of the country was almost completely covered in green.  Rain.  There was so much rain and it was heading our way!

I’ve often talked with my kids about how it’s raining here or there and they’d take a look outside and said, “But Mommy, it’s sunny outside!”   Do you remember a time when you couldn’t comprehend that it could be sunny where you stand and raining somewhere else?

Several years ago, after Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf, our singing team, Calling Levi was asked to go to New Orleans to minister to the volunteers who were working countless hours reuniting families, rescuing victims and securing shelter for the thousands of people displaced by this terrible storm.
PINIMAGE
The impression this trip had on my heart was unforgettable.  We drove by house after house.  Each one we passed had a red X on its door or siding.  I asked our host what the X and the numbers meant.  He said, “It means it has been checked for bodies. They write the date, the time and who checked the house and the number of bodies found.”   As we drove, I thought I had been transported to some war zone.  Deep sadness overwhelmed me.  I couldn’t believe we were in the “sunny south”.  I couldn’t believe this was America.

It’s amazing how people can be going through such a terrible tragedy in one part of our country while the people in other parts go on with life without much thought about it.  I can remember hearing the reports of Katrina’s devastation and being deeply moved by the tragedy but as my day went on, the thoughts were pushed out and replaced with the needs of the day.

Even the media could not clearly convey the heartache I witnessed with my own eyes.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s not that people didn’t reach out to help. Thousands, maybe millions gave financial gifts and resources.   Yes, without a doubt people rallied.  But you cannot put into words what it was like to be there. You feel the pain, fear and loss of the victims.  These were people with faces and families.  It was an unforgettable, sobering time.

Just the other night, we received a call that after school programs were cancelled at my children’s schools due to severe weather that was approaching. My son gets especially anxious about storms and I immediately thought of him and prayed that the rain would hold off until he got off the bus and was safely home.  I remember I was sitting at my desk when the call came.  I was scrolling through the Facebook news feed, reading status updates from friends all over the country.  Many of them were talking about their dinner plans or sports, how they were planning to spend their evenings, you name it.  But I felt like saying, “Hey, everybody!  We are about to be hit with a huge storm!!  There’s severe weather approaching and there is a potential risk to my family and home!”  I thought to myself…it’s odd how on any given day, as one person is looking forward to a quiet evening with family, another is bracing for a storm.

What a life lesson!

PINIMAGEI’ve had my share of storms.  Life storms.  I’m not talking about rain and wind.  There have been times when massive storm clouds of trouble have hovered over my life.  Scary times.  I recall times where certain destruction was inevitable and as I crouched in fear, my hands covering my head, bracing for the worst, I cried out to God and He came in and calmed the storm in me.

Psalm 61: 1-4 says,
1 O God, listen to my cry!
    Hear my prayer!
2 From the ends of the earth,
    I cry to you for help
    when my heart is overwhelmed.
Lead me to the towering rock of safety,
3  for you are my safe refuge,
    a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.
4 Let me live forever in your sanctuary,
    safe beneath the shelter of your wings!

Life storms are as certain as the severe storms we faced the other evening.   We will see the rain.  God has been so gracious to me in those terrible times.  When the forecast says, “Rain headed my way.”  I know God is with me and He will bring good from it…
“Your sorrow itself shall be turned into joy. Not the sorrow to be taken away, and joy to be put in it’s place, but the very sorrow which now grieves you shall be turned into joy. God not only takes away the bitterness and gives sweetness in it’s place, but turns the bitterness into sweetness itself.” Charles Spurgeon (on John 16:33)

I’ve got to share it – how God has been my shelter through the storms of life.

There’s one problem.  I cannot impart hope to others when I am unaware of the storms around me.  Just like my children who could not comprehend that rain was pouring in another part of the world, I am sometimes guilty of assuming that since life is sunny for me, those in my little world are not in some kind of storm.

There’s a storm over someone’s home near me.  Maybe they are bracing for destruction, not knowing how much damage will occur but certain there will be harm done.  Or maybe the storm has already hit and they have been sifting through the wreckage to find some resemblance of the life they knew.

Does someone in your little world need you to walk beside them in their storm?  Do they need the message of hope you have found in Christ?

My prayer today is that God will help me to see with His eyes.  I am praying God will help me to know when I need to walk with someone through their storm.  The fact is, it’s always raining somewhere.

Katrina X photo courtesy of  © Ian J. Cohn, 4725 Dauphine Street, Holy Cross, Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 13, 2008.