WorshipSource.com

So I have returned home after a trip to Fort Collins, CO - for Activate Leadership Conference, which was a really great time - but I had another one of those "fortune cookie" moments on my trip I wanted to tell you all about…but this time it was with a ring. :)

I had an afternoon free, during which I enjoyed the beautiful Colorado weather and ate lunch outside on Beau Jo’s patio downtown (I love their pizza, especially their amazing crust, which you have to save for last and eat with honey!). Then I wandered through the shops in downtown Fort Collins, which led me on my last stop to a Native American Indian jewelry shop before I needed to head back for sound check.

There was the sweetest sales lady in the shop, who I immediately took a liking to. She started telling me all about the different pieces of jewelry, what kind of stones they were, what the different symbols meant. One ring in particular - that I would have never chosen on my own - she brought out of the cabinet to show me. She said, "I think this one is in your size…it’s a Hopi Indian hand-carved ring…and carved in it…is the storm sign."

At first I’m thinking, "I’ve had enough storms in my life; I don’t need to be calling forth any more!" But the more she talked about it, the more something sparked in me…

She talked about how the storm sign reflects the Hopi reverence for the life-giving rain.

She talked about how the weather is usually so dry that they have to pray for storms to come.

She talked about how if they have no storms, they have no water, no crops, and no survival.

Sure, we understand in the natural how the earth needs rain, and that to get that rain, it comes in the form of storm clouds. But did we ever consider that maybe the same might be true in our spiritual lives?

Now I’ve seen plenty of spiritual storms in my life - and I don’t recall ever asking for them to come! In fact, I’ve complained about them, whined about them, and genuinely wished they would just go away. I can’t say I have often found myself saying, "Lord, could you please bring a whopper of a storm into my life right now? I could really use one!"

However, I do recall times where I’ve told the Lord that I feel dry or empty. Could it be that maybe when it seemed like the enemy was bringing this "tumultuous storm" in my life, it was actually God’s grace and provision??? Maybe the whole problem is that I really didn’t see how the Lord was using the storm to show His glory, to water my spirit, and bring renewed life.

I think the enemy - as usual - likes to glorify himself. He loves to get ours eyes off of God and on the wrong things however he can. I know that my track record in the midst of most of the storms of life has left me struggling, wrestling, wanting to give up, wanting to run, wanting to hide. Wouldn’t it be so cool next time if instead of all those things I actually recognized the Lord’s mercy in it? What if instead of praying for God to take it away, I actually opened my arms wide to allow God’s rain wash over my parched soul?

Jesus himself - when he knew he soon had to face the cross - said, "Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? ‘Father, get me out of this’? No, this is why I came in the first place. I’ll say, ‘Father, put your glory on display.’" (John 12:27-28, The Message)

Jesus saw the whole picture. He knew that though he saw a deadly storm coming, he also saw how the Father was using it to bring life-giving rain to the world. Oh, that I would have eyes to see what God is doing through the spiritual storms of my life…and that my heart’s response in the eye of the storm would be:

"Father, put your glory on display."

So I bought that little Hopi ring - not only to remind me of what storms the Lord has brought me through - but also to remind me that when I see new storms coming , I need to remember to look beyond the thunder, lightening, and wind…and dig my roots deep so that I’m able to soak up every bit of the life-giving rain that the Lord is bringing in the midst.

Father, I hope that in those moments - when your glory is on display through the storms of my life - that the whole world might see that You are God…and You are good.

(To see the ring, go to this link below:) http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p233/sherilyncarr/2008%20Events/Activate08/P1010007.jpg

Comments