Even Though The Storm Rages... He Is In The Eye of the Storm

If anyone has ever been through a difficult storm such as a hurricane, a tornado, a blinding blizzard, they know that in the middle of the storm there is often a place of peace or a moment of calm before the storm begins to rage again. In a hurricane, it is called the eye of the storm. Even in blinding blizzards, there is often a lull and then another wave of storm.

It amazes me at times how nature gives way to humanity almost as if we need a breather, a chance to catch our breath. I believe it is God's way of speaking to us, letting us know that He is there, even in the fiercest of circumstances. He is there to help us through.

I can think of many storms in my life where I didn't think I was going to make it through to the other side of the storm. I remember driving through a horrific, blinding blizzard. It was like driving with roller skates on sheer ice. It took us five hours to travel 100 miles. Normally, it would have taken 90 minutes, but the storm was so bad that everyone was travelling very slowly and we could barely see the car in front of us. There were cars in ditches. We couldn't pull over to the side of the road because we were in the mountains and the nearest town was 100 miles away. Even the tractor trailers were having difficulty with the journey. Yet, I knew, as my roommates slept, that someone bigger than me was travelling with us keeping us all safe.

When we got to the next town which was out of the mountains, there was a lull in the storm, so I drove on through another three hours, finally to the end of the storm. One of my roommates suddenly woke up and asked if I wanted her to drive. I said, "yes." As soon as my body hit the passenger side, I fell into a deep sleep. My roommates said I could not be awakened for the next 500 miles. I had driven us through the most difficult part of the trip... the blinding. They slept through it, but we were not alone. It was the middle of the night, but I, the driver, was not alone. He was there in the eye of the storm. He kept me awake, alert, and safe. I'll never forget it.

There are so many other kinds of storms we experience in life... times when things happen beyond out control, yet He is there with us even if we cannot see His sustaining hand.

(c) 2007, RamyB

Forward Motion on the Journey

Today, I received word from my professor that I had passed my final clinical for my master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. This has been two years in the waiting. My expression was an elated YIPPEE!!! My children were excited and I laughed as my daughter stated VERY clearly, "Mom, make sure you finish the second master's degree before you start the third one." Of course, this is the first one and I am working on a second one already.

They must really know me. Today is such a momentous day for me. It feels as though I have been let out of the race gate and I have finally crossed the finish line. The race was long and tedious, but well worth the effort. There were hardships along the way; some that I thought would literally crush me... at one point, I critically understood how it felt to have a dearly, loved child taken from me and held in a facility that was unjust and unkind to him. I learned how to advocate for him; how to believe in him; how to visit him and remind him that he truly was and is a son of God and God Himself would act on his behalf. Some of these things I can talk about, some I can not talk about, but it caused me to delay my final clinical. Some of these events caused me to rethink my journey over and over and over again.

The most difficult hardships have pressed me to become a better therapist. Some of the things I walked through prepared me for part of my current practice although I did not see that when I was going through the hardship. There were times when I felt like I was being crushed in a wine press, or an olive press... when every part of my dream was being brought into question and every part of my character was being inspected, but in the end, on the other side of the severe hard pressing life circumstances, there has come a sweet oil that only Christ has been able to bring through me. In the end, the journey deepened my faith like no other.

Hardship is something we do not invite into our lives. In fact, most of us run from hardship, but when hardship comes, it is our perspective and our faith that will get us through to the other side... to the day when the sun begins to shine again. Eventually, the vineyard owner opens the wine press and cleans the olive press. When the pressure eases, the flawed parts of our character are mashed into the pulp of the wine... or the pulp of the oil. Then, the impurities are strained out. Wine and oil have symbolic meanings in Christendom as they both have healing properties. They have been used to represent spiritual things such as the very presence of the Living Christ and the Healing Balm of Gilead and the anointing of the priests.

Even today, red wine contains tannins that kill parasites and oil keeps parasites from moving or entering the skin. There are so many different applications to just these two substances...

Yet, here... in this place, the pressing and the hardship purified my life. I believe it further qualified me for part of my occupation and ministry. It caused me to be much more sensitive to those who are falsely accused. It caused me to understand how a child can go through imprisonment in an unjust system, endure hardship and how God can move to deliver him from it. It caused me to understand the pain that people undergo who endure public humiliation or gossip. It caused me to remember that we are all just flesh and we require the very presence of a very Living God to sustain us. It is by grace that we live and move and have our being.

Then, without our even noticing it... we have moved forward on our journey. We have touched countless lives along the way by our humanity, our faith, our realities, our joys, our sorrows, and our songs. In reality, there are several races we are called to run... how we run those races, no matter how difficult determines our outcome. If we will choose to STAND in faith believing in our Heavenly Father's ability to carry us through; if we choose to WALK through the circumstances; if we choose to FOCUS our eyes on the truth; if we choose to WORSHIP and PRAISE in the midst of something we simply cannot understand even though our emotions are screaming another language, then we will RUN and NOT WAIT and we will FINISH the RACE... and receive the rewards that are intended for us. Some of those rewards are the very relationships that were forged along the way... other rewards we cannot yet see, but at the end of our life we can hope and pray that we have been wine and oil to all those around us and wear a crown fit for kings. And in the midst of the journey, we have sojourned with the Divine Creator of the Universe... and learned more about what LOVE is... becoming LOVE to a world that is desperate for our forward motion.

With love,
RamyB