Jesus said to the Two Listeners:
Turn out all thoughts of doubt and of trouble. Never tolerate them for one second. Bar the windows and doors of your souls against them as you would bar your home against a thief who would steal in to take your treasures.
What greater treasures can you have than Peace and Rest and Joy? And these are all stolen from you by doubt and fear and despair.
Face each day with Love and Laughter. Face the storm.
Joy, Peace, Love, My great gifts. Follow Me to find all three. I want you to feel the thrill of protection and safety Now. Any soul can feel this in a harbor, but real joy and victory come to those alone who sense these when they ride a storm.
Say, “all is well.” Say it not as a vain repetition. Use it as you use a healing balm for cut or wound, until the poison is drawn out; then, until the sore is healed, then until the thrill of fresh life floods your being.
All is well.
A thunderstorm rolled through last Friday night. I love thunderstorms and often find them calming. This one calmed me until about midnight when the lightning started to strike and the power started to flicker. Then, within a two minute span, the power went out for good, one lighting strike sounded awfully close – pow! – and then one second later, something hit the house – thud! It came from my youngest son’s bedroom. He slept through it, so I went outside to see what happened. I found a large branch hanging off the roof over my son’s room. Here’s what it looked like in the morning light:
Not only did it twist the gutter, it punctured the roof in two places. I also found two other large limbs down in the yard, another hanging by a thread to its tree thirty feet up, and another lying across a downed section of the chain-link fence.
My sons and I got to spend our Saturday cleaning up the mess as much as we could. We filled four lawn bags with the small branches that littered the yard. Trying to remember what my insurance deductible is, I climbed up on the roof, pulled the limb off, and tacked a tarp over the holes. We also made a run to Kroger for supplies to get us through until power could be restored, which ended up being Sunday evening. Goodness, did we wish we could take showers, even cold ones, but the well pump doesn’t work without electricity. But we made the best of it. I kept a decent attitude, and so my sons did, too.
I’m not dancing for joy over my punctured roof, mind you; this is going to cost me money and time away from work. But I’m surprised that I’ve taken this so much in stride. Where does it come from? I’ve done a lot of work on myself in the last five years, but this calm goes beyond that work. No, I have to credit God who reminds me that I’ve been in plenty of unwanted and difficult circumstances these past five years, and he’s brought me through fine every time.
Another storm is rolling through as I write this. Let it rain. All is well.
Update 8 June: It rained hard for five hours yesterday. I checked my crawl space this afternoon and it has a foot of water in it. Guess my sump pump doesn’t work. All is well, all is well, all is well…
