04 May Perspective in the Storm

Recently my daughter, Cori, was coaching a young man, let’s call him Chris, about how to interpret the weather radar we use during our storm chasing. He was interested in the wind velocities, direction of the storm, and whether there was a ‘hook’ that meant a tornado was probable. Several hours later I noticed a pensive look on his face. Soon after I began to witness signs of anxiety and a bit of distress. He turned to Cori and asked, “Is that a hook on that supercell?” Chris became visibly nervous. Then, he extended his phone to the front seat where Cori was busy navigating her father to the location of the storm. Cori calmly reached toward his phone and pinched the picture down to a more proportional size and began explaining the details of what he was seeing. Immediately, Chris’ posture relaxed and the lines on his face faded. What he had seen as imminent disaster was only a small spin off storm that had very little potential; but since he had zoomed into the image to see detail he thought it was an overwhelming and unavoidable peril. He chuckled as he admitted his confusion and the chase continued.

Isn’t that what many of us do when faced with life’s storms? We blow them a bit out of proportion and worry and fret over the magnitude of what we are facing. After years of managing storms, both in weather and in life, Bill and I have begun to see them in God’s perspective. When we encounter a storm in relationship, finance, or family, it is easy to ‘zoom’ in on the details. Wisdom and experience has taught us that when we ‘pinch’ the screen of life into its proportional size against eternity, storms are manageable with God’s help.

In fact, God’s truth has taught us not only how to weather the storms, but also how to reach a place of restoration in their aftermath that is better than anything we encountered prior to surviving the dilemma. Now, we do not suggest that God places storms in our lives for teaching opportunities but He will certainly use the storms to reinforce His truth and love for us.

We learned this lesson many years ago when, after taking a marriage survey, we found our marriage ‘on the rocks’. We had believed the lie that we needed to compare our marriage to everyone else and when we did, we found dissatisfaction and strife. We entered the eye of the storm and were buffeted to and fro as we navigated the winds of vanity, self-absorption, and materialism. We did not give in and after a storm that almost devastated our family, we can stand and say that our marriage is stronger and more fulfilling than ever!

Storms can knock you down. If you find yourself in a storm you can not get through, let us share what we learned through our own storm and help you become the supernatural family God always intended for you.