I saw this video on cnn.com today. Click here to watch video. Wow… what an amazing piece of video footage. It is absolutely stunning to think about how quickly things can change when a storm hits. That bank was perfect… 30 seconds later, it was trashed.
Earlier today, I had a friend who was outside working… the rain came so fast, he was soaked before he could hop back in his truck.
What are some real life storms that we experience that bring about such swift change? Divorce… Death… Financial Ruin… What else? What other events bring about such swift and sudden change to our lives?
Perhaps the more important question is: What is God’s role in these moments? If he is the author of our story, why has he chosen to craft such cruel chapters in our story? It’s easy to see why people don’t believe in God…
The sad thing is, those who don’t know God are only seeing or experiencing part of the story, and they perceive it as whole truth. The reality is this: Those things that happen in our lives… those terrible storms that change things so rapidly for the worse. They aren’t things that God has authored… they are a byproduct of sin… a result of The Fall.
Everything changes when you see things from this perspective. Suddenly God has not caused the misery in my life. Instead, He is the one who stands firm in the storm. He doesn’t run away, he doesn’t abandon us, he doesn’t condemn us. He is the one reaching out through his perfect Grace to pull us through to the other side. God is no longer the cause of our storms, he is the hope for relief from our storms.
Without the storms, we don’t know grace. Without grace, the storms are senseless acts of destruction. Without God, there is no hope of redemption on the other side of the storm.
Therein lies the responsibility of The Church (big C… God’s church). It is the call of all Christ Followers to be extensions of this Godly grace in our daily lives. If we are doers of Grace to those around us in our daily lives, we are planting a seed for them experience God’s grace through a storm in their life.
In short I say this. It is the job of the Church to show the world that God is a God of love, grace, and mercy. In order to do this we must be people of love, grace, and mercy.
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