Glories Come After the Storm

Back when I last blogged, the calendar said July. Prior to that, Becky wrote about summer productivity and to-do lists. You might consider reading those again to understand what exactly happened to us over the summer.
(Go ahead, hop on over to those posts right now. This one will still be here waiting.)

Becky knew exactly what was coming. It happened to both of us because it’s happened in summers past. A bit of foreshadowing, wouldn’t you say?

However, I am proud to report that we both accomplished at least one thing on our summer to-do lists. It was a mutual task – one on both our lists – and one we spent time doing together, so it made it extra fun and special. We both realized later what great moral support we offered each other through the process. 

Both our college young men appreciated the blood, sweat and tears that went into these projects – and that is not a joke – it took all three. But if it caused me to make a coveted tick mark on my list and allowed 30 t-shirts to find a purpose instead of the trash, then it was all worth it! 

You likely don’t recall (a-hem, since it’s been so long) that I promised to share about our anniversary trip. So it might seem weird that in writing about our anniversary trip the title has “storms” in it. Stick with me and it might all make sense. 

cliché? or is it?

It’s so cliché, isn’t it? “The sunshine comes after the storm.” The proverbial they use that phrase to describe good times coming after hardship. “The sunshine” = a new baby, a new house, a happy vacation, a job promotion, a marriage, a plentiful harvest. “The hardship” = the disease, the job loss, the death, the anxiety, the adjusting to big life changes, the miscarriage, the natural disasters, the abuse, the societal downturn. The storms of life. 

Finally, a trip that wasn’t cancelled. Twenty years ago, I walked down the aisle to the man God had prepared to be my lifelong partner. Twenty years of weathering the ups and downs of life together. Twenty years of storms and sunshine, twenty winters and twenty summers. Twenty years of God’s faithfulness through it all. So we wanted to celebrate with something we haven’t done since our honeymoon – a week-long trip, just the two of us. 

a road trip to remember

On a Monday in July 2021, Pete and I gave kids hugs and began our travels. After all that has been postponed or cancelled in the recent year, we felt blessed to be able to keep our reservations and travel plans to Branson, Missouri. The road-trip kind of travel has always been more appealing to us than the flying kind of travel when possible. We get to experience more of God’s beautiful world. In addition, car-conversation, music or read-alouds aren’t as easy to do in an airplane. This road-trip did not disappoint. We read a book together. We had uninterrupted conversation for hours and days (unless one of us interrupted ourselves!) We had our choice of snacks and drinks and didn’t even have to referee any arguing over who gets what. 

A trip for us, for our marriage. 

To connect again with God and with each other.

Every marriage needs that to continue to remain strong and rooted in Him.  

Branson is best known for it’s unlimited number of entertainment shows. You can choose from music shows, comedy shows, magic shows and shows that seem to have no purpose at all. 🙂

Most people who travel to Branson will visit the biggest stages and the colossal theme park. Pete and I chose one stage and a beach instead, along with a shopping boulevard and a number of hiking trails.

When we tell people about our trip, we say,
“It was wonderful! We saw Jesus!”

The staging, the costumes, the script were all so accurate to Scripture. The music and effects made us feel like we were first eye-witnesses to Jesus’ life. (Which, by the way, “Jesus” is still playing through December. Sight & Sound Theater changes the show for 2022. Go see it if you can!) 

The weather was great, only showering on us once. The day we chose to be the captains of our own personal canoe, the air was calm and the water was like glass, nothing like the storm we witnessed in the theater when Jesus and Peter walked on the water. 

With the time we spent together came reflection on the storms of life we’ve weathered and the on-going storm that’s been tossing all our boats around for the past 18 months. 

weathering life’s storms

Every couple experiences these life storms. We are no less susceptible than anyone else on this sinful planet. We have suffered through illness, and a couple of them, chronic. We have maneuvered through tragic and sudden loss. We have had scary hospital stays, adjusted to big life changes and made poor decisions affecting each other and our family. Most detrimental to our marriage though are the times we haven’t spent personal time in God’s Word or read and prayed together as often as we could have. 

Yet, what do we know will help us weather these storms?

So how does God bring us back? 

He allows the storms 

He allows the storms. 

He doesn’t cause them. God is not a God of evil. He does not seek to punish his children. Remember Job? 

God had a lot to say about this man. So did Job’s friends. There’s a whole 42-chapter book about him in the Bible. 

You don’t have to go very far in the book of Job before we hear what kind of man he was: blameless and upright. It even says, “he feared God and shunned evil.” Job was a very wealthy man with a large family, greatly blessed by God’s hand.

Early in the book, the unfathomable happens – Satan comes before God and acts as if he can order God around. 

“Strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

“Very well, then, everything he has is in your power,
but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

God allowed the storm. He didn’t cause it. That’s very important for us to remember as we go through our storms in life. 

Satan caused great destruction to Job, causing Job to lose everything he owned and held dear within minutes. (Well, his wife survived the calamity, but as you’ll see when you read the book of Job – if you haven’t already – she wasn’t much of a righteous supporter of God.)

I don’t think there is one of us who can say we know how Job must have felt.

After all that, we’d expect Job to fall into deep despair and curse God, just like Satan assumed he would do. God records these words of Job for us: 

“‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.’
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.”

It wasn’t long before Satan, not happy with Job’s response to tragedy, approaches God again. Satan causes disaster to come to Job one more time – this time a little bit more personal. You’ll have to do a refresher for yourself, but the nuts and bolts (or the hail and lightning!) of the story is Job has a not so helpful wife and some even more not so helpful friends to “encourage” him. Job takes in all his wife and friends tell him and he becomes discouraged and questions God’s actions.

Enter Elihu. Everyone needs an Elihu in their life. 

For SIX chapters Elihu speaks to Job, reminding Job of the awesomeness of God, how no one can fathom the works of his hands. 

“God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
He does great things beyond our understanding.
He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’
And to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’
So that everyone he has made may know his work, 
He stops all people from their labor.”

Did you catch the “storm talk” in Elihu’s words? He speaks of the amazing power of our God to send rain and snow to the earth, but for our good. Don’t we marvel at the weather storms that come our way? Don’t we sit in front of the TV as we watch the meteorologists hold on to light poles with all their might as the hurricane winds lift their feet off the ground? Don’t we pause from our harvest in the downpours and sit in our cars waiting out the lightning storm during a softball game? Don’t we stay home from work and school in the Minnesota blizzards for our safety? Our Almighty God sends all of that – for our good. 

How much more won’t he allow the storms of life – for our good!

After Elihu has said his piece, and likely caused Job to do a lot of reflecting, we hear from the LORD. 

“Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm.”

I skimmed and read and took a deep-dive into Job this summer. And nowhere do we hear of an actual storm. Now maybe God sent one in that moment. Maybe it refers back to Elihu’s words of comparing God’s voice to a storm. Maybe it speaks of the storm of life Job experienced. 

Either way, I found those recorded words profound. 

He offers the solution

And with that, the LORD speaks to Job. He calls him back to himself. (I find myself unable to keep the rest of the story from you – so spoiler alert!) Job repents “in dust and ashes” and God blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. That, too, is unfathomable. 

I breezed you through Job. You really do have to refresh yourself on this book! The words of Elihu, the rebuke yet gentle guidance from the LORD, Job’s heartfelt confession – all of it – my words are nothing compared to the inspired words of God. 

I’ll end with where I started. Reflecting, as a couple, how we’ve weathered the storms of life. 

And we continue to weather storms. 

Today, as I write this, we as a nation are experiencing the hardest things in my lifetime. I feel like the turmoil and corruption we’re dealing with now is even worse than 9/11, the only other event in my lifetime I can use as comparison. We experienced tragic loss of life that day. But look what happened in the minutes and days (and weeks and months!) that followed. The nation came together. We united like I had never seen before. And haven’t seen since. 

Today, as I write this, the nation and the world are still dealing with something we were told 18 months ago would be gone in 2 weeks. No one knew for sure of course. It’s still affecting our daily lives, our carefully laid out plans, our decisions and our physical and mental health.

Today, as I write this, I have many friends and family on my heart and in my prayers. Friends and family members who are ill or experiencing hardship. A friend’s post caused a smile and tears as I read what she wrote: “God’s mercies are new every morning,” and proceeded to say that her nephew’s life ended yesterday. And yet, she can still say, “God’s mercies are new every morning.”

Why is that?  How can we cling to that even in the hard? Even in the gut-wrenching pain.

We can cling to that through all of life’s storms because God is always faithful, always good. Because the Holy Spirit has brought us to faith and faith clings to the promises of God. Even in the hard. Maybe even more tightly, more fully, in the hard. 

It is for this reason that I believe God allows the storms so we turn to him even more. So that we long for heaven. So that we remember this is not our home. Don’t get too comfortable here. On the other side, don’t despair. The storms will not last forever. In its place God will bring about new life, perfection in Jesus and a forever home that knows no end and experiences no suffering. 

“‘Come, I will show you the bride,
the wife of the Lamb.’ 
And he carried me away in the Spirit
to a mountain great and high, 
and showed Me the Holy City, Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God. 
It shone with the glory of God,
and its brilliance was like that of a very precious
jewel.” (Revelation 21:9-11)

Sunshine does come after the storm. Sometimes not right away, but it is there and will shine in all its brilliance again. After the storm of life, we will see the glories of God. 

So, we echo with the apostle Paul, we rejoice in our sufferings because suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God’s love is all around us. (Romans 5)

If you do a search in your concordance Bible or app for “perseverance”, you will find a number of passages – James, Hebrews, Galatians, Philippians, Romans, 2 Corinthians. And if you’re going through some turbulent storms right now, bask in God’s promises and grace between the covers of your Bible. And if your life is just gliding smoothly along the calm waters, bask in God’s promises anyway. He will always strengthen your faith through his Word.

The perfect glories are coming!