Awkward Silence

I went to bed last night around midnight only to stare at the ceiling for the next five hours. During that time, I (mentally) wrote a (brilliant) blog post entitled Everything I Can Do You Can Do Better. It had just the right amount of humor mixed with just the right amount of truth to let you, the reader, know that I, like you, grow weary of people who always have done the exact same thing you have done, just with a little more drama involved.

It truly is exhausting.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on which side of the fence you sit on), I was not motivated in the least to actually get out of bed to put my thoughts to print. Instead, I perfected the grammar, tweaked a few punch lines, and rolled over while congratulating myself on a job well done. As the darkness of the room took on the gray tones of dawn, I drifted off to sleep only to dream about tornadoes and death for the second night in a row.

It's been tough around here, people.


(this is where the awkward silence comes in)


I honestly have nothing else to say.
Nothing inspirational. Nothing witty.

It'll hit me around three in the morning.


Except for this,


For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
Neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts higher than your thoughts.

For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens,
And return not there again, but water the earth
And make it bring forth and sprout...

So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth:
It shall not return to Me void (without producing any effect)
But it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55: 8-11



I love it when He gets the last word. =)

Storm Chaser

Today I will make my fourth road trip in four days. I am not kidding when I say I'm a little tired of my beloved little car. I actually let it sit quietly for three solid days last week and stayed put in the house with the pajama-and-no-make-up kinda look. Afterall, I had just put a little over two thousand miles on it for the month of June alone. July is not looking much different... I might be relieved when school starts up again. If nothing else, my gas tank (wallet!) can take a breather.

All this traveling. All those highways and interstates and lonesome little towns miles off the nearest exit. I may very well have memorized every Starbucks with easy on-and-off access on both sides of the Mississippi. I've seen accidents and broke-down cars and highway patrols with their flashing lights. I've maneuvered the madness of the big cities and scoffed at the ignorance of the GPS.

And, boy, have I been through some storms.

Rain I can handle. Torrential downpours, I cannot.

High wind.
Thunder.
Lightning.

The screeching of a tornado siren?

Sheesh. I've dealt with it all in the last month on the road. This last time, just a few days ago, had me praying my usual on-the-road-in-the-middle-of-a-downpour kind of prayer:

Lord, break these clouds up. Split the storm in half. Calm the wind.

He can do that, right?

But here's the deal, He has rarely done that... for me anyway. I mean, seriously. Why can't He just pull the plug on the lightning cord and put the funnel cloud back in its pen? I know He can do it. I've reminded Him of this on several occasions. Even the other day, when my nerves were shot and my eyes blurry from focusing on the yellow line when I could see absolutely nothing else on a southeastern interstate in the middle of the afternoon and going a whopping fifteen miles per hour...

Come on, Lord. Is this necessary?

It was when I finally saw blue sky and sunshine before me and looked in my rearview mirror to see the dark and stormy clouds behind me that He spoke to my heart,

I did not take the storm away from you, but I did bring you through it.

Well, I can't argue with that. These storms in life... they threaten to tear us down, to choke the very life from us, to ultimately stop the work that God has begun. We've all been through 'em. We'll all go through 'em. Storms are a part of this life both in the natural and spiritual world in which we live. But if these storms have taught me anything, it is the very fact that I am still standing.

And so are you.

Hang on to the One who will outlast every storm. No, He doesn't always stop them. More times than naught it seems He lets them play out until the very last roar of thunder dwindles down to a faint whimper in the sky. And yes, there is no hiding the devastation that is sometimes left behind. Storms have a way of tearing things up and leaving us with the clean up, kinda like the tantrum of a two-year old in the middle of the Walmart candy aisle (extreme example, I know, but I've got visions of reality tv in my head that will never go away).

God is good even when our circumstances are not, and yes, my dear girl...  He does have a plan. Even when it makes no sense, there is something greater unfolding. For now, though,  I've got to gas up that tank and hit the road again, but you can bet on one thing,

I'll be checking that forecast. =)





For He [God] Himself has said,
I will not in any way
Fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support.
I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree
Leave you helpless nor forsake you nor let down.

-last part of Hebrews 13:5, Amplified