Storms About Me

Storms About Me

by David Brenneman 

One of the most harrowing driving experiences of my life was in the fall of last year.  I literally was scared to the point of almost having a panic attack. I had gotten out of work, went to where I was staying and packed up what I needed to take with me.  At the time I was working in one city but my home was in another, we were in the midst of packing up to move.  A storm was brewing, a particularly nasty one from what the radar showed.  I was thinking that I had driven in rain before this shouldn't be that bad.  Oh how wrong I was.  I was driving into the storm.  It was so hard and heavy that the best I could do was squint to look for the lines on the highway.  I couldn't get off the road to wait it out because I didn't know where the edge of the road was.  I couldn't get off the highway at an exit because I couldn't see to change lanes. To this day that storm experience still shakes me. 

In the midst of the storm I indeed found myself praying.  A lot.  That was certainly not a time to have a panic attack.  I felt beyond overwhelmed.  

The other day I seemed to have been given the message to keep praying...rough waters ahead.  Monday was rough.  Seemed like moods of people were escalating. My vehicle is developing problems in the last week that I drive to work in.  What I use to mow the lawn had been fixed, broke again yesterday.  Rough waters ahead. Work has been shall we say strained. Several that I need to deal with daily have some of their own issues and negativity follows them.  Add to it other things that are indeed insignificant in others eyes but certainly aren't to me...well...those rough waters feel worse. 

Some might chalk it up to luck. Well that's one thing that I do not believe in.  I had been warned not by 'fates' but by the Spirit of God.  I think on that song "Breathe" by Jonny Diaz.

Alarm clock screaming bare feet hit the floor
It's off to the races everybody out the door
I'm feeling like I'm falling behind, it's a crazy life

Ninety miles an hour going fast as I can
Trying to push a little harder trying to get the upper hand
So much to do in so little time, it's a crazy life
It's ready, set, go it's another wild day
When the stress is on the rise in my heart I feel you say just

Breathe, just breathe
Come and rest at my feet
And be, just be
Chaos calls but all you really need
Is to just breathe

Third cup of joe just to get me through the day
Want to make the most of time but I feel it slip away
I wonder if there's something more to this crazy life
I'm busy, busy, busy, and it's no surprise to see
That I only have time for me, me, me
There's gotta be something more to this crazy life
I'm hanging on tight to another wild day
When it starts to fall apart in my heart I hear you say just

Breathe, just breathe
Come and rest at my feet
And be, just be
Chaos calls but all you really need

Is to take it in, fill your lungs
The peace of God that overcomes
Just breathe (just breathe)
let your weary spirit rest
Lay down what's good and find what's best
Just breathe (just breathe)

Just breathe, just breathe
Come and rest at my feet
And be, just be
Chaos calls but all you really need
Is to just breathe
Just breathe

This blog seems to be expanding in the midst of things as well.  Add to the physical things the added Spiritual stuff causes a two front battle.  

We also have a family gathering this weekend.  When to work in getting these things fixed is difficult.  How to do it while my Wife is having difficulties getting around.  Oh rough waters ahead. 

On top of these things is still more that I haven't really told others about yet.  Still other things are to do with missing people that we were friends with before moving. 

In all of this I am reminded that I wasn't left or forsaken, wasn't forgotten, in that storm last fall and am not forgotten or forsaken now.  I have fears for sure that others, even the closest to me, cannot grasp but my Savior who understands all things.  

Reading in Psalms you see the captions between sections of Scripture.  Read of when David wrote what he did.  The times when he was on the run.  Being chased by King Saul.  Going through one storm after another. 

I know not how any of this will work itself out.  I keep praying and trying to do what I did back in that storm on the road. Keep trying to push through. Keep remembering that I am not alone.  Keep knowing that all the way my Savior leads me. 

I know that now, like then, nothing surprises God.  As I saw in a picture...God and all of us are not using the same clock. 

I certainly have things to face with the temptation, yet again, to panic being before me.  

I have fears that I indeed need to overcome.  Some go back over 50 years that have been in the back of my mind that long.  

Indeed all this may come across as complaining or venting.  Scriptures say that we often go through things in order to comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from someone else. 2 Corinthians 1.

I know that there is possibly more to the storms that I have yet to see.  Life can be that way when you decide to follow Jesus. 

I know that He is in my today before I got here. I know He holds tomorrow in His hands. That nothing surprises God.

People today just are going so fast in the moments and indeed as the song above mentioned don't stop to sit at Jesus's feet.

Too much is being said about so many things that people today just don't know anything about concerning this belief or that belief that was taught in the Church decades ago.  The Father's plan was never to make salvation complicated. It was to make so easy a child could understand it. Adults complicate the salvation message so bad at times with useless thoughts and theories.  A child believes unconditionally and undoing the teaching of learning to be an adult takes time. To get back to that unconditional belief that God's got this, no matter what this is. 

Sometimes it is as simple as remembering that Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.  Forgetting all the so called things that have been thought up by mankind to add to what people should or shouldn't believe and get back to that starting point.  Most people today have no clue what Calvanism or Armenianism or any other ism is.  As the writers of the Bible wrote: I preach Christ Jesus crucified, risen to life, sins forgiven to all who would believe and call upon His name to be saved.  The breath of life is given to give the opportunity to be saved.  Simple as that.  The Holy Spirit teaches after salvation has come. Again, simple as that.

Storms storms storms. God is God over the storms too.  Being His workmanship means going through things to become more like Christ Jesus.  

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Storms may come and go, but the Word of God stands forever.