We have all experienced trials and storms in our lives. They were terrible events that we had to walk through. When we think of storms in our lives, it is easy to compare them to a tornado. When a tornado is barreling down on us all we can think about is surviving it. Imagine looking out your window and seeing a tornado coming straight for your house. What is your first thought? Is it “I love my house and I love my possessions” or it is “I love my family and pets and I want everyone to remain safe”? The only thing we can think about is how to protect ourselves and the ones we love.

When the tornado passes and we realize we have survived, we are very relieved. We are not thinking about all of the things we lost during the storm. We look around and see that all of the people we love survived, and we are so thankful that all we can do is get down on our knees and thank God for saving us. A few days after the storm has passed, we start looking around and we realize just how much we have lost. We see the mess that the tornado has left behind, and we may become discouraged. It is not that we are not thankful that God delivered us from the terror of the tornado, but we realize that we have a lot of clean up to do, and it is at this point that we sometimes begin to question God.

Storms of life are much like a tornado. We see the storm barreling down on us, and all we want to do is survive it. We pray to God for His protection. Once the storm passes, we are so thankful that we narrowly escaped that we get down on our knees and thank God for delivering us. Soon we realize that the storm of life has left us with a mess that we have to clean up. The amount of clean up depends on the magnitude of the storm. Some storms in life only take a few days to clean up. Others may take months or even years to clean up.

It is during this time that we need God the most. It was easy to cry out to Him when the storm was raging, but once the storm has passed, we don’t always depend on Him as much as we should. We acknowledge that He saved us, but now we start questioning why He allowed the storm to come in the first place. We may even start questioning our own wisdom in how we handled the storm. We still realize how blessed we are and how thankful we are that God protected us, but perhaps not as much as we should be. We want the clean up to be instant. We want God to perform a miracle to get us back on the path. We forget that God is still working in our lives and that He is right there helping us clean up the mess that the storm left behind. We had faith in Him when the storm was coming, but we sometimes lose our faith once the storm has passed.

God wants our faith in Him to be just as strong after the storm has passed as it was during the storm. God wants us to give all of our burdens to Him. He doesn’t want our main focus to be the storm. He wants us to focus on what the storm and the ensuing clean up means for our lives. He wants us to see His hand in the storm and in the new life that the storm will ultimately bring for us. Look at it this way; He brought us through the storm, so surely He can bring us through the clean up. In fact, we should be in an even better position to hear from Him and depend on Him.

The peace after a storm is the sweetest form of peace there is, and it is during the time after the storm that we can strengthen our walk with God. We can shed all the worries and strife of our pre-storm lives and look forward to a new life post-storm that has been blessed by God. It is a life that will be full of a newfound hope and peace that only He can provide. It is a life full of new possibilities that would have never been possible had the storm not occurred. The storms in life are not meant to destroy us, but they often redefine us and draw us closer to God.

So, the next time you are going through a storm, rely on God as you always have, but remember to rely on Him even after the initial danger of the storm has passed. It is during this quiet and transitional time that the most valuable lessons can be learned and that a new sense of peace will emerge and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~