Seeing The Storm As A Gift



Each of our lives has ups and downs.  I can easily recall many of these moments in my own life.

I remember walking with Brittany on the East side of Elk Rapids and asking her to be my girlfriend back in high school.  Many years later I can also remember walking with her on a private beach in Elk Rapids.  I remember the sound of the waves and the gentle breeze as the sunset over East Bay.  I remember feeling like I was going to barf due to my nervousness as I took a knee and pulled the ring out of my pocket and asked her to marry me.  Many years after this, with a tear in my eye even now, I also can recall holding our dead son Owen after Brittany gave birth to him.  I remember my joy at seeing my son and his handsome face.  And I remember how that joy was mixed with sorrow over his death.  There is no greater sadness I have ever known than losing a child.

Life is full of unexpected ups and downs.  They are unavoidable and are statistically somewhat predictable, and yet we act stunned by the ups and downs all the same.   And this is the way life is often like.  We all live tethered to a cursed world that groans with a longing to be reborn.  And this same world is also full of unexplainable beauty that melts our hearts.

As the Coronavirus disrupts more of our lives to varying degrees we begin to see this brokenness.  And yet if we keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith we can make better meaning from our experiences.  We can live secluded and anxious lives or we can...  If we press on towards Christ we can see the storm as a gift in which our faith can be deepened.  Jesus may not make a smiling sun on the window with his finger, but he sure can bring light to dark places and help us see clearly as the rain continues to pour down in this dark time of sickness.

Read New Internation Version and The Message paraphrase of Hebrews 12:1-3


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