Storms of Life

I don't like storms. Really, really, REALLY don't like storms. And it stormed last night. It stormed real real bad.

Okay, so where am I going with this?

Well, last night I slowly started getting over my fear of storms! The literal storms (the ones with big thunder claps and lots of lightning) and the storms that rage within you and tear you down. At Encounter last night we talked about having the Fruits of the Spirit, being part of the vine, dwelling in Jesus and Him dwelling in you, you get the picture. The last scripture we read was Galatians 5:13-24. This tells of how we live when the Spirit is not within is and then how live when we have the Spirit. Me being the over-analyzer I am, kind of, momentarily panicked. I was thinking, "Oh, well I have Jesus in my life, I'm trying to make sure I keep Him first in my life and follow the plan He has for me...so why do I sometimes struggle with some of the things mentioned in the first part of that scripture? Oh no..." Well in the middle of this panic, our power went out because a ginormous storm was heading our way. Thunder. Lightning. Lots and lots of lightning. I'm afraid of the dark too. So when our power went out, I started breathing a little heavier, got a little sweaty, and thought, "Oh no...we're going to wind up in Oz!" Okay, not literally, but the whole storm part just freaked me out.

So, I text my wise Aunt Yoda. I go to her for so many questions and advice about life and she is wonderful. She is certainly an angel sent to me by God. I do not know what I would do without her. Through half an hour of texting back and forth, she reassures me that 1) I am human and will ALWAYS be tempted and struggle with sin from time to time, 2) Jesus was tempted, 3) God allows temptations into our lives to show us our weaknesses in order for us to learn control and self discipline, and 4) I'm not doomed! :)

It's great to realize and remember that God loves me no matter what. It's so incredibly comforting. I really have no idea where I would be without Him, His guidance, His help, or His love. I don't want to know where I would be.

Our power stayed out, the storm raged on for a while, I made a short playlist on my iPod of some of my favorite songs, and I actually sat in our living room and watched the storm! I wasn't totally freaked out by being in the dark or all of the lightning and the chaos going on outside. This then transfered to calming the storm that had started to well up inside of me. Something just came over me and I realized that storms aren't so scary after all...well okay they are, but they are such a beautiful display of God's power!

Life's tough. Challenges and trials and temptations of every shape and size come our way - but God always gives us a way out and will not tempt us beyond what we can bear. Thank goodness!

So once again, I feel as though this is just a bunch of rambling on and on and made no sense what-so-ever to anyone reading this...that kind of is the theme of this blog of mine...kind of the theme of my life! I do a lot of word vomiting, and I am okay with that.