Monday, February 28, 2011

Batten down the hatches, Dorothy...

It's unseasonably warm this morning in Atlanta. The usual morning sunrise is concealed by a blanket of hazy clouds and the wind is gusting just strong enough to let you know that it's not an early spring breeze. As I stand outside and take a good look at my surroundings, I don't need to turn on the weather channel to know what's about to happen.

A storm is on it's way.

If you were distracted by the usual Monday morning efforts to get ready and out the door to make it to work on time, you might even completely miss the warning signs. And this afternoon when you're sitting in your office and all of a sudden hear a rumbling of thunder, it might take you by surprise. It may even find you unprepared without an umbrella.

And that got me thinking. How many times have we missed the warning signs for approaching "storms" in our lives because we weren't paying attention to our surroundings? It's true, storms are usually inevitable and never without purpose. But in life, and in the heart, storms are often weathered better with awareness, preparation and maybe even a little shelter. An umbrella may not completely protect you from a storm, but it will at least keep you from arriving at your destination completely drenched.

When I think back to storms in my own life that I thought "came out of nowhere," I begin to reflect on the events leading up to the storm and often realize they weren't so out of the blue after all.

Did I miss the warning signs?  Maybe.

Could the storm be avoided altogether?  Who knows.

But I do know that even being slightly aware of what was brewing right in front of me might have prompted me to make different decisions. It might have triggered me to prepare myself or take shelter.  It might have inspired me to listen more intently to God and be keenly aware of what it was he was trying to teach me through that storm in the first place.

"When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation."
                                                           -Proverbs 10:25






Jamie

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