Stormy Weather

With family in Indiana and Virginia, I've spent countless hours driving between the two states, over the Appalachian mountains. To my frustration, it always seemed to rain or snow.

It wasn't any different as I headed east one fall afternoon. It was miserable weather for a long drive alone and I grumbled and complained appropriately. My mood was still pretty sour as the clouds started to break up and the late afternoon sun began to peak through.

I crested a hill with the sun right behind me and it lit up the rolling hills below. The trees, in full autumn color, burning with brilliance as their wet leaves shimmered like diamonds. The reds, oranges, yellows and greens were the most brilliant I have ever seen. I repented of my grumbling and humbly drove on, in the awe of the gift I'd been given.

Sometimes, the only way to beauty, to wonder, is through struggle. I would appreciate cresting that ridge on a normal fall day. It would be lovely and I would say so. But there was something more beautiful available for me.  God wanted to show it to me. Share it with me. But it want't going to be possible without a drive in the rain.

So much of life is that way. There are things God wants to show us, things he wants to give us, places he wants to take us but we cannot get there without struggle. It is only later, after the storm, when the clouds lift and the sun breaks through that we get to experience the wonder.

The hard thing is we don't always get to see the beauty. I have made that drive in the dark with snow and ice, hoping only to get my family safely to grandma's. I never saw a hint of wonder and asked only, why the God who calms the storm let that one rage.

I'm not sure I know how to answer that question. What I do know is the most beautiful people I know, the deepest, the most real are the ones who have walked through struggle. Struggle with loss, with pain, with scripture, with God.

They are people who have been poured into a crucible and come out shimmering. They are people who have cried out to God and heard him whisper, "I have something more beautiful I want to show you." And they have trusted him. Through their hardship, they have experienced the wonder of God so profoundly, they now reflect it.

I wonder how God would respond if I said to him, "I want to be a person like that. I want my soul to be beautiful." I wonder where he'd take me. I wonder if I'd have the courage to follow him into the storm.