The Storm

"I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen You." Job 42:5

Today I am trying to catch up on work, mission trip preparation, house work...everything it seems like.  The events of the past two weeks have changed our lives here in many ways.  A tornado swept through our small town of Ringgold, GA on April 27th, 2011.  Many homes damaged and destroyed, lives lost, businesses wiped out, our middle and high school campus torn apart.  Our home was left untouched by the terrible storm, we only lost trees.  My hometown of Ringgold, Georgia no longer looks the same.

It was about two days after the storm that I began to think about my friend Sarah Jones.  She came to my house back in January to teach a group of women from God's Word for a gathering I called "Invitation".  She spoke of the "Invitation to the Storm".  She would then share this same teaching while we were in Romania together this past March.  The word she brought to us during those times was such a different approach to a storm than I had heard before.  She said that the storms of our lives are the times that God is inviting us to get to know Him better, to know Him more.  This was true in the life of Job.  I have heard so many people say that "we don't know why Job had to go through all the losses...including his children"  but he tells us in Job 42:5 that he had heard rumors of the Lord, but now his eyes had seen Him.   The first time I read that I thought...That is exactly why he went through all he did. 

I don't know why God allowed the tornados to sweep through Ringgold, parts of Alabama and Tennessee.  But what I do know is that God is Soverign!  He loves us so much and with a love that will never end.  His Word tells us that He will NEVER leave us or forsake us.  The storm itself has ended, but the path of destruction it left is great...but our God is Greater!  This is an invitation for us to get to know Him more, to see Him with our very own eyes at work through His people.