We are hard-working laborers. We spend our days fashioning life into a perfect picture. My wrap-around porch surrounds my huge house that sits on my eighty acres of property that stores my four expensive vehicles and speed boat. Life looks good, so life must BE good. The ending is hillarious: We labor to craft everything just the way we like it, and then…we ask God to stamp it with His aproval. We’ve worked hard for this, afterall; we deserve God’s support and a little recognition.
What if the things we build for ourselves aren’t the same things God wants to add to us? Dare we ask God to change His plan? “Uh God…I’ve noticed lately you’ve been straying from my wish list…” Enter: God the hurricane.
So here’s your life. It looks good. It feels good. It even smells nice. And then all of a sudden, BAM. Your life is destroyed. A hurricane comes through and levels your life. Everything you want becomes impossible to obtain. Everything you love is taken from you. Everything you’ve worked for now lies in piles of rubble on the floor before you. God, as a hurricane, has come and destroyed everything you’ve worked for. Crap. Now what?
When Katrina hit the south, the land was stripped. Homes were washed away. People fled from the storm. But once the storm died…what happened? THE PEOPLE CAME BACK. They returned to their “ground zero” and they rebuilt. They asked for help. Lots of help. They pulled together and began to reconstruct.
Sometimes God loves like a hurricane. He loves you enough to wreck your life. Right about now you might be thinking, “That doesn’t sound like something a loving God would do”, which is true…if you stop there. Keep following me! Sometimes God loves you enough to wreck your life…so that He can rebuild it. He’ll destroy everything. Sometimes He might take the things you love, the things you enjoy….but in that same sweep, He’ll take away the things that burden you, the things that weigh you down, the things that distance you from Him. And when He builds you back up…He’ll give you things to love. He’ll give you things to enjoy (though they might be different!)…but He will keep your burden, and ask you to trust Him while He carries it for you.
Sometimes God wants to destroy you so that He can rebuild you. Sometimes God loves like a hurricane, and the best thing we can do is wait out the storm and trust in His reconstruction. You can’t fight a hurricane. It’s pointless to try. You can, however, worship in the storm. And if you listen carefully, you’ll probably hear the wind singing along:
**He is jealous for me. Loves like a hurricane, I am the tree! Bending beneath the wind of His weight and mercy! When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory! And I realize just how beautiful you are, and how great your affections are for me! Oh, how he loves us so! Oh, how He loves us! How He loves us so!** (David Crowder)
Lately God has been asking me, “Les, am I enough for you? Just me. Not the things I provide. Not the blessings I send. Just me. Am I enough for you?” And I’m learning to respond with a song:
For every thirst and every need, you satisfy me with your love,
