And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
1 Peter 5:10 ESV
When you live along the Gulf Coast, you grow accustomed to seasonal storms. They blow in, do their damage, and leave as quickly as they came. I experienced the effects of one such storm first-hand. Hurricane Rita made her debut along the east Texas shoreline in October of 2005. A few weeks later, I drove through the area, amazed at the devastation. Billboards, trees, buildings. . .toppled and torn. The entire landscape of southeast Texas had been re-written.
I shot off an email to a good friend who lives in the area and she responded with an intriguing comment: “You should have seen it before they cleaned up.” Those words stopped me in my tracks. I had been looking at the “new and improved” devastation, the cleaned-up version. I hadn’t seen the real thing.
The Storms We Go Through
My friend’s words gave me pause to think about the storms we go through in our lives and the images we portray to one another in the midst of them. How many times are we beaten and battered, yet rush to present ourselves to a watching world as one who has it all together. Often, we just want to quickly tidy up. Put our best foot forward. Put on the happy face.
But devastation is nearly impossible to hide. When you’re going through a messy divorce, a struggle with a drug addiction, a battle with depression, it’s tough to pretend everything is all right. I find myself moved by the words of Thomas Hardy, who said: If all hearts were open and all desires known — as they would be if people showed their souls — how many gapings, sighings, clenched fists, knotted brows, broad grins, and red eyes should we see in the market-place!
The problem is, we rarely let others see.
We hide. We pretend we’re okay when we’re really not. Why is that? Why is it so difficult to let people know what we’re really dealing with? Why do we struggle with vulnerability? We all go through storms, after all. We should be able to relate to one another in our moments of weakness.
Today, if you’re walking through a storm, reach out to a friend or loved one. Come clean. Share your struggles. And keep your heart open for others who need you during their stormy seasons, as well. And remember, God is bigger than the storm. The winds will die down, and He will have His way.
Challenging Thought: How have you handled the storms you’ve walked through? Are you stronger or weaker after they’ve blown over?
Read more devotions like this one in a new book Janice co-authored with Louise Looney titled An Overcoming Walk of Peaks and Valleys, now available on Amazon!
