Break in the Clouds

The sun had been hidden for so long. For the past month, my hometown had been locked in an inversion, which meant all the polluted air remained trapped in the valley. Sure you could take even a fifteen minute drive and be out of the dreariness and into the blue sky. News reports were going on and on about how it was warmer in the mountains than it was in the valley, that they were struggling for snow as we were.

All I could do was scroll through my Facebook and Twitter feeds with progressively growing envy. I was trapped in the valley with a busy work and school schedule. I couldn't make a trip anywhere. Blue sky did exist....for other people.....but for myself, it seemed like an entirely different story.

And then one day, I woke up and there was brightness behind my shades. I opened my window and there it was. There was blue sky. It had come to me. It wasn't just a little bit of brightness--it was ablaze, not a cloud in sight. There, in that moment, I realized there was a spiritual lesson to be had...

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I easily get caught up in what I see around me. I can be a glass half empty, pessimistic, Doubting Thomas type of person. Things can always seem bleak and hopeless. I seem to need "proof" to explain the littlest details. Sure, I know there is a reason behind situations. But sometimes, it just is not enough.

I shake my head at how readily this applies to my life right now and I'm not talking just about the weather. I struggle to believe so many things. As 2014 came in, I felt the Lord calling me towards boldness and expectancy...do you know how hard that is for a person like me? Sadly, my faith does not always possess that childlike quality. I have a faith the size of a mustard seed yet I doubt its blossoming potential. OR I think it will cease to bloom, that its tried and true pattern will be altered.

But it never does.
We have to have the winter in order to get the spring. We have to go through fire to test our faith. We have to believe that promises will be fulfilled in order for that to happen. If we do not experience pain, how can we fully appreciate joy? The long and short answer is we can't.

There are so many things I love about spring. I love the crocuses budding up from the soil; the buds on the trees; the birds that tweet away. If these occurrences happened out of order, that would be a problem...so it means I have to take the gray skies and the cold. I come to appreciate springtime all the more because of what I have endured.

So it is with life
If I got my way, if I immediately got things when I wanted them, I know I wouldn't see my God in action. I wouldn't learn to appreciate both where I am and where I want to be. Sure, it might seem easier right now. Goodness knows I am ready for "clouds" in certain areas of my life to break away and leave....but God doesn't work that way. Just as winter takes its sweet time in leaving, so to is it with our hopes and dreams.

But they do come. There is deliverance. There is hope and newness just around the corner. The clouds do break.
What a promise that is!