I don’t know about you but I have experienced some pretty bad storms in my life. Thunder, lightning, winds howling, and rain that is coming down so hard you can’t see your hand in front of your face. When you are going through something like this it’s pretty scary a lot of the times, I enjoy storms so sometimes it’s not so bad. I have heard people describe different situations in life as “a storm of life” and it has been fitting. This year I have experienced many storms. Some have been mild while others have seemed more like what I just described, like at any moment the wind is going to come in and obliterate everything around me. In January, while I was in India, my sister Kelly was in a car accident, then the next month my mother had surgery to remove her thyroid, then at Easter I found out my grandmother had breast cancer, then a few weeks later found out my sister Kelly had thyroid cancer, then last week found out that both my grandmother’s and my sister’s cancer is a little more serious than I had thought, and then yesterday found out that my sister Michelle is in some pretty serious legal trouble. Talk about a storm.
I never knew how difficult this year was going to be last January when I said yes to God and signed up to go on the World Race, but even in the difficulty this has been the best year of my life. So when the opportunity came up at the end of April to apply to a discipleship program that would be 12 months starting in September I said yes to God once again. I will admit I had some hesitation at first on if I should leave right away after being gone for a year or instead just wait until January. I have missed my family and a lot has happened so I wanted to spend time with them, but I felt like God was telling me to go in September so that is what I am doing. The last two weeks, each time I have received news about my family I have wanted to go home. I have actually not wanted to be on the race and be able to just be with them, to hold them and to hug them. Yes I know that the best place for me to be is where God has me and that there is nothing more I can do there than what I can do here, but it doesn’t matter I still have wanted to be home. I have a great team and they have been amazing with Heith pretending to be my sister and my grandmother and giving me a big hug when I said all I want to do is hug them, and all of them being willing to sit and listen to me talk about what is going on even through occasional tears. With as much as I love my team and what they have done for me, what God has done for me is so much better. Throughout this year He has continually told me to trust him with my family, to trust that he will do what is best for them even if it seems bad to me. Last week he took me to Matthew 12 which is talking about Jesus being Lord of the Sabbath, which it was the Sabbath that day, and I was reminded of how Sabbath is the Lord’s rest, to rest in Him. Then he took me to Matthew 14:27-31 where Jesus walks on the water and Peter says to him “Lord tell me to come to you and I will come.” All Jesus says is “Come.” As Peter is walking to Jesus he sees the storm and becomes afraid and begins to sink. While I read it God tells me “You asked me to tell you to come and I did; now the storm is here keep your eyes on me.”
I trust God with my family and I know that more storms will come, but as long as my focus is on Jesus I will not be afraid and I will not sink. If I do I know he will save me as soon as I cry out to Him just like he did with Peter. In 2 Corinthians we see that no matter what the enemy may throw at us he cannot beat us, because Jesus is with us.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
