Before the storm

Some of us are like water drops, before the storm. We’ve been in storms before. Now, we’re just floating around, tiny droplets who before were parts of mighty storms. But only God can do it. Storms, when they’re from God, are good. They bring rain and wind, they clear the air and actually shake things up, something that’s so often needed.

Then what? The storm passes and the clouds recede. Often calm returns. I don’t know if water drops have thoughts like this, I suppose they don’t.

But maybe somewhere someone wants to be part of a storm again. They have the vision for it; they feel it’s what they’re created for. The calm and mundane bore them and almost get on their nerves. They long to be part of the storm, part of the change, part of the shake-up, part of the revelation and part of the exposure of drooping, languid regularity that so often leads to lethargy and lassitude.

That’s how I am at least. I’ve been a part of storms all my life, often some really big ones. It was a storm of God that brought me to Jesus, the “Jesus movement” that was so powerful when I was in university and was an integral part of how I came to salvation.

I’ve seen the good they do, the stupor they shock, the indifferent indolence they overcome. “The Lord has his way in the whirl wind and the storm.” (Nahum 1:3) I wrote a blog article about that verse after a tornado passed directly over my parents’ house where I was a few years ago. You can read about that here.

But if we just go around trying to be storms, we’ll make a fool of ourselves and amount to nothing. The Lord has to do it, we can’t do it ourselves. He has to stir up the wind, He has to define and ordain the times.

Our part is to be in the right place, at the right time, in His will. Then we’ll be available, ready and willing when the circumstances are right and the Lord brings the storm. Perhaps, meanwhile, we’ll just be part of some scattered showers here and there. Normal little rains are also very needed and they are more prevalent than storms.

So, like the little local rains, we Christian water molecules will keep being part of the rain. “You, Lord, did send a plentiful rain whereby you did strengthen your inheritance, when it was weary.” (Psalm 68:9) The best ability is availability. Maybe we won’t right now be part of a storm but we can at least be available to be the rain. We can witness the Lord’s truth and love to individuals here and there, the ones who will hear it and even those who don’t.

But if you’re like me, you long for the storm, to be a part of something that’s bringing major change, ordained by the hand of God, that really stirs things up, that brings clarity like lightning does on a dark night.

The lightning of God strikes, illuminating all around it, profound, direct, unstoppable, unquestionable. And we little droplets of the waters of God are swept up in the mighty acts of God that move across the nations, affecting all before it and bringing the mind of God again to this befuddled world.

But God has His times. Sometimes the best is to just keep looking to Him, looking for opportunities, being faithful in season and out of season. Let’s face it, that’s how it has been for most Christians, down through the centuries. They haven’t been a part of the storms some of us have. They “despised not the day of small things.” (Zachariah 4:10) They “did what they could.” (Mark 14:8)

Nevertheless, we can pray. We can hope and look to the Lord that He will yet send another storm. Some of us feel that this is what we are ordained for, this is what we find our destiny in. As it was said to Esther in the Bible, “You are come into the kingdom for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)

But we are not the generals, we are not the Lord of hosts, the captain of the armies of God. We are just His soldiers who’ve fought for Him in campaigns in years past, having seen His mighty hand, having seen His mighty victories and rejoiced in the amazing light and clarity that was a part of those storms, those battles. United with other droplets, we are part of something greater, used of God and rising above to be a part of that moment when God is sweeping the world with His power, might, truth and love.

Maybe that will never happen again. Maybe we’ll just continue to be part of the showers that fall locally from time to time. Or just be the dew of the morning. And if that is His will, then His will be done.

But for me at least, I hope there will be another storm. I hope the Lord will bring the elements together, bring the wind, bring the magnitude of truth that He pours out in the times of mighty change that comes with His storms. And I pray that I and my many friends who’ve been a part of the storms of God in the past will yet again be swept up by His mighty will to bring refreshing, truth and change to this deeply confused and bewildered present world.