Good can come from the storm.... you just have to ride the wave!

As weather men and women on the morning news shows talk about the storm that is Sandy, I can't help but notice the tape rolling in the background.  It's mostly surfers and body/boogie boarders waiting for the next big wave caused by the huge storm that's coming their way.  That's what they do during a storm.  They wait for the biggest and baddest wave so they can ride it out to perfection.  If you watch surfers (especially the newbies), you see them wipe out and nearly drown with arms flailing about. Some of the more experienced surfers, however,  will take a proper stance, wait for the wave to come --with total disregard for any harm it could cause---and take it on.  I call them nuts and wonder how in the world they think it's good sense to be out and about in the middle of a storm riding a wave.  This morning, it occurred to me that there might be something to it.  When a storm is brewing and getting really bad (read, when life is happening and things get hard), maybe I should do less retreating and feeling sorry for myself and questioning of God and do more stance taking, more patient waiting and more riding out of the wave.  We've heard many of the gospel songs of old that suggest trouble don't last always, or joy comes in the morning, or holding out until a change comes.   A favorite of mine is when the preacher tells the story about the girl and her dad driving in the storm and cars are pulling over and 18 wheelers are pulling over and it's raining harder and harder and the girl can't see and she asks her dad what they should do.  He says "just keep driving".  After several times of telling her that, they finally make it out of the storm.  He then tells her to pull over and look back at all the people who stopped or pulled over before the storm was over.  There is good (and God) in the storm.  It never seems so or feels like it at the time, but there are so many things happening at once and quite frankly, we can't begin to understand it all.  TRUST GOD.

Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding...

Even when you think you have the answer and especially when you realize you don't...Take a stance, wait (or do the work) patiently, and ride the storm to perfection. 

EXPECT MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER THINK OR IMAGINE