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| Pam! |
Recently, California had a barrage of thunderstorms that shook houses and nerves. Pam reflects on Katrina and our lives…
It was a dark and stormy night…I just experienced a thunderstorm like none I’ve never experienced. It began at midnight and continued for two hours straight! It alternated between pounding rain, huge bursts of lightning, followed by incredible booms of thunder that rattled the house. It brought back memories of how scared I was during a storm at night when I was little…I would get up and walk to my parents’ bedroom and watch them sleep or sit in the hallway. During this thunderstorm, I kept wondering how my two nephews with whom I was sharing the room could sleep through it all. When was this thunderstorm going to end? I need to get some sleep since I was driving over 400 miles the next morning on my own. Then my thoughts turned to the folks who had experienced and lived through Hurricane Katrina. My thunderstorm paled in comparison. They had to endure a much more violent and intense storm that lasted about a week.
Aren’t our lives also filled with storms and hurricanes in one form or another? During those times, don’t you just want it to stop and get back to the calmness? But God didn’t come to eliminate those life storms or hurricanes. He came to fill them with his presence. God is in control. During life storms or hurricanes, we’re forced to search for and cling to God’s ever present hand. We don’t have to wonder where God is. “Lord, you are my strength, and my protection. You are a safe place for me to run in times of trouble.” Jeremiah 16:19. He’s also there building endurance in us. “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us–they help us learn to endure. Endurance then develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation.” Romans 5:3-5. We can be a storm or hurricane survivor if we keep our focus on God. He will supply us with everything we need to stand firm during our storm or hurricane.