“Where you were heading in life before the storm is not the same place you are heading in life after the storm.” (David Jeremiah)
I have so many friends, in person, and online now in the Lyme community and I find this statement to be true across all platforms of suffering.
Let’s take the “why” out of the equation for a second and just focus on the redirection in the storm. Isn’t it true for you in all kinds of storms? All storms, when big enough, will alter our course – change our direction.
Financial storms, having kids storms, death storms, loss of job storms, chronic illness storms. All of them redirect our lives. What seemed important 5 minutes ago is not after we have endured or entered a storm. Perspective shifts, heirarchy of events is altered, emotions drastically change and all of a sudden we aren’t where we were and could care less we wanted to go there in the first place.
This is the beauty of the storm. It is the rainbow and the bloom of trees and flowers after the storm passes. The calm after the storm will come. In it we go “ah-ha”. We can hindsight in the aftermath and see how it altered for the better in our lives.
When we can breath after the storm, the “why”can sometimes be seen or understood, even though we wouldn’t want to endure it again.
So then, how do we find that HOPE, that goodness, right smack in the middle of the storm.
When the tempest rages and we can barely breath, where is HOPE to be found?
Tony Evans, in speaking of Jesus calming the storm on the water with his disciples, said that the storm is peace all stirred up. Why else would Jesus say “Peace be still”. He was commanding the peace to be still. So, every storm of life has peace in it.
In Kansas we get raging storms – storms that are very difficult to sleep through. Boy, when I do, I am always shocked because I am such a light sleeper. But Jesus slept through that terrible tempest on the sea. They had to wake him because of their terror to ask him to do something. In fact, when they woke him, they said “don’t you care that we are all going to die?”
Isn’t that where we are in the storm? Expecting a great sea rescue, wondering if God even cares that we feel like we are going to die?
But Jesus response to them was about their fear and their lack of faith. Just by his words, there arose a great calm.
“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40)
So, you wonder where is God in your storm. Ask him. Novel idea right? Just ask. I did. I asked Jesus in all those painful long exhausting fear filled nights where he was and what he was doing in it. He immediately gave me a vision that he was right beside me with his hands on my abdomen and my legs holding the pain in check.
He was in my storm. He lays the boundary lines, they have fallen in the pleasant places, eventually. The pain can only go as far as he designs and lets it. The illness will last as long as he sees fit. Not a minute longer. But even in the storm, there can be peace.
Don’t get caught in the asking “why” the storm, especially not while it rages. The “why” is a better question that is answered easier in hindsight after the course has been altered and goodness shows itself again. The “why” will only torment in the height of the storm, it has no real answer there.
I pray for each of you that the pain and burden are lifted – it is because I don’t desire any to suffer. But I also know that in the suffering is where Jesus can bring the greatest comfort and the desire to know him fully and lean on him completely.
Mark 4:39 says after Jesus spoke “peace be still” to the storm, there was a great calm. That is what I pray over each of you even more than healing, even more than great health, that there is a calm that sweeps over you in the midst of this storm and any storm to come.
Because the storms will come and some can really rage, break us, our lives and our hearts. But I pray for you to be strengthened in the storm, that you will feel his presence and know he is there with you.
Blessings and healing,
Janice Fairbairn
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