THE STORMS OF LIFE
God’s Hand
DRAPER’S PAPER ROUTE
THE STORMS OF LIFE
by Adam Carroll Draper
Summers in the foothills of northwest Georgia are hot. I lived there in my early teens. We lived way out in the middle of nowhere, halfway between Rockmart and Cedartown. I had a blast! My friend, Clark, and I (and all our dogs) would run across a beaver swamp, over hills, through woods and pastures to get to various ponds so we could swim. My mother forbade me to do this because she was scared I would drown. Every day, I lied my ass off because it was too hot, stinky sticky, muggy and buggy to do anything else.
One particularly hot day, Clark and I were out in the middle of a pond when my duplicitousness nearly caught up with me. This was a nice pond of about an acre. It was clean. We did not swim in the ones with scum and stuff on them. We were just sort of treading water and diving down where it was cool to see who could find a good dirt clog or something to throw at the other. It was around ten feet deep, which is pretty deep for a pond, so we were distracted by the enormity of it. Eventually, we started hearing a huge downpour coming over the surrounding trees (which is cool to listen to).
“It’s comin’ a storm,” said Clark. “We’d better shag ass outta here.”
“Just rain,” I said. “We’re already wet.”
“It ain’t done it, dumbass. You know it’s gonna be lightnin’, and we’re out here in the middle of the @%#^&*! water.”
We started swimming in just as the rain got to us. It was a leisurely pace until we saw a huge stab of lightning and heard explosive thunder immediately afterwards. We started laughing, but we swam for our lives. I am not kidding at all – totally happened this way. We hit the bank about the same time (I beat Clark there for sure - just saying), and our feet were barely out of the water, when a huge bolt of lighting struck the pond and thunder erupted at the same time. It scared the piss out of both of us. I felt the tingle of the electricity on the bottom of my right foot and a strange wave of fuhwoosh went over me. The air felt weird. I looked over at Clark, and his hair was standing up. The hair on our arms were standing straight.
We looked like Spanky and Buckwheat in one of those Little Rascals episodes when they get scared. We started laughing so hard we could barely run, but we got out of there. I think we stood in an old cow shelter for a while until the storm passed. Clark and I watched a lot of storms come and go during those summers. There was something serene and comforting about it, like that was just the way of things – just life.
I don’t know if it was the experiences in Georgia that made me like to watch storms, but I still do. It is like all the stuff we think we have to do gets interrupted by something we can’t stop. No matter how intense storms are or how interminable they seem, they pass. Sometimes, we deal with the aftermath. Other times, the world just seems a little cleaner. The grass is a little greener.
A lot of friends have been talking to me about immigration lately – which is a storm of sorts, I guess. Some are all up in arms that there is an invasion going on and it has been brought about deliberately. Others are furious about walls and ICE because they think we shouldn’t have borders in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly have a few opinions about the whole thing, but I am not going to let this be an issue that starts making me forget that God loves us all. There is not too much I can do about what the government is doing, but I can look past what a man represents to me and find a divine spark in there somewhere. Before you think I am saying something I am not, all I am trying to do is be nice to people (everyone) – or at the very least be civil when I am already mad.
How? I try to remember this: “And we know that all things work for the good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28.
No matter which way I look at the immigration issue, this verse provides the solution, the cleaner greener after the storm. If the enemy has hatched a plot to destroy Christendom in the West, he won’t win. If people turn into raving lunatics and start rampaging in the streets, it won’t last. What can I do about it? Rest in the certainty that love always wins and God will not be mocked.
I let myself rest. No matter what happens (NO MATTER WHAT!), God will turn it all to the good for those who love him and are the called to his purpose. We could have another great awakening at any time. Whatever the enemy is doing is not going to stop me from loving. Imagine what this whole world would look like if God showed up in glory and miracles broke out everywhere. People would be raised from the dead. Cancer would be healed. The paralyzed would jump out of their beds and go shouting and dancing in the streets.
The enemy can’t do one thing about a Great Awakening other than make us so mad that we won’t except it. You know the news media is going to ignore it until they can’t deny it anymore – and then they’ll claim it is aliens or that God is an “…ist” (list them) because everyone did not experience exactly the same thing.
Jesus said, “Your treasure is where your heart is, where you most want to be, and end up being!” (Message translation). I will rest in that – the truth!
I say what Jesus said to this storm, “Peace, be still.”
If you got anything out of this missive, please give it a thumbs up, comment, or share it. It helps. I sincerely appreciate the fact that you took the time to read this.