Dodging Storms

We are in the midst of the Hurricane season here in Florida. Tropical Storm Fay has already shown us just what a tropical storm can do to us if it just lingers around and doesn’t move. It is amazing how much water these storms can carry. Then, shortly after Fay left Hanna came along. Hanna went up the East Coast of Florida and just missed us. She missed Florida and invaded the coast of South Carolina instead. Now as I write this blog Hurricane Ike is out in the Mexican Gulf and threatening to thrash Texas. I have also been reading about what these storms have done to Haiti and other Caribbean communities and it is absolutely terrible. We definitely have nothing to complain about in Florida in comparison to them!

Last time I was home in Florida the year was 2004. I think three Hurricanes went through Florida then. The year after that Katrina came and devastated New Orleans. I had just moved back to Sweden (the day before Katrina hit) and read about the destruction and flooding that Katrina left. Interesting to note that while I was in Sweden for two and a half years it was relatively calm here in Florida. So what happens when I return? It all starts again! Now don’t get me wrong I am not superstitious… but one does begin to wonder at times why it all happens when I return home.

But putting all this aside I also think about storms in my own life. Now, I am not speaking about hurricanes and tropical depressions, I am speaking about difficulties in life that leave me wondering where they came from and why they come my way. I am sure that I am not alone in this. I have at times been so simple in my thinking that I thought If I lived a certain way, or watch out for certain things, then all will go well with me and my family. I have even at times been so presumptuous as to judge other people that are going through junk in their life thinking privately that they must be doing something wrong since all these storms are coming their way. I didn’t realize it when I was doing it but I was judging others through my own black and white world view. Where I got this world view I am not sure but it doesn’t hold water.

In Jesus day there were people that thought they had life all figured out too. Once, when Jesus and His disciples walked by a man born blind, His disciples asked, “Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” They thought that they had the answer to why junk happens. They had boiled It all boiled down to either sin in our life or sin in someone else’s. It sounds reasonable doesn’t it? I mean, it is true that the stupid things we do have consequences don’t they? While this is true that we do sometimes suffer the consequences of our own stupidity we also know that sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we get away without our stupidity affecting us. We also know that sometimes things just happen to us that we can’t explain. Jesus answer to thedisciples was different than what they expected. He said, “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,…This happened so that the power of God could be seen in him.“ We later read that Jesus healed this man.

Life happens and sometimes things happen that we simply can’t explain. It is humbling because we learn that we are not in control nor do we always have the discerning power to figure everything out. The storms that I have been dodging lately make me realize that I don’t know as much as I thought I did. God knows why things happen like they do and He doesn’t always tell us. My job is not to try to figure everything out, my job is to trust Him while I go through the storms of life.