The Storms of Life

Sitting here looking out the window at the beautiful, blue sky now that Hurricane Dorian has moved on, I feel incredibly blessed. My hometown in eastern NC has been ravaged by hurricanes all of my life, but since 2016 we have been hit especially hard. Matthew took aim at us in October of 2016, Florence sat on us for four days in 2018, and now Dorian had his chance last night.

I feel like a #pecanreport this morning because of the little damage we suffered this time around. The wind and rain were savage at about 2:00 this morning. I thought my house was going to come apart! It didn't. Even though I got little -to -no sleep last night, I know things could have been much worse. Dorian moved in and out quickly and cleared the atmosphere when he left. Hence the beautiful, blue sky this afternoon.

Several of my students on Wednesday admitted that they had never experienced a hurricane and were quite nervous about Dorian. I told them to look at me and how old I was and I had been through so many hurricanes I couldn't even count them. Wonder if Jim Cantore can? Praying today that these students were safe in the storm and felt secure and not fear.

This storm reminded me of the storm's of life that we all go through. They roll in, wreck our lives temporarily, but move out and leave a clean atmosphere behind. When we go through these storms we have to remember that God is really the one in charge. He knew about the storm before it ever got close to us, and he knew how we would react as well. He never leaves us- not before, during, or after the storm. The verse Psalm 107:30 says, "And you were so glad when the storm died down, and he led you safely back to harbor." Isn't that really about our life storms? Aren't we all "so glad" when they calm down? Doesn't it feel good to know that He guides us back to the harbor?

I'm adding a couple of photos to this blog taken at Indian Springs Pecan Farm of pecans and trees damaged by Hurricane Florence last year. I want these photos to remind us that when a storm comes into our life and scatters us like these pecans, we survive like the tree they fell from. In reality, we don't just survive, but flourish and get new growth like the picture of the tree shows. When we've been knocked from our tree (or harbor) and we are laying on the ground thinking that it's never going to get better, it does. He is guiding us to the safe harbor. #pecanreport #safeharbor