Storms

We encounter many kinds of storms as we journey through this world, for some, they are more destructive than for others. We naturally react with fear, and worry, and anger over why it must be this way.

God knows we are passing through a fallen world, and He asks us to try and see things as He does, or to trust that He is in control, and will guide us all the way.

As a psychotherapist, I work with clients who live in nursing homes. An elderly man who I will call Alex, recently said to me “I grew up in a household of abuse, and I learned how to find peace as a result.”

Alex spoke of sustained years of physical abuse by his mother towards him, and lesser towards his younger brother. Alex learned over time to recognize how his mother was ill and wounded, and that her battle was an inner one, and was not truly aimed at or caused by him.

“For a period of five years when I was growing up, we had many soldiers who were returning from WWII stay with us at our boarding house. They were each going to study at a Catholic seminary in Boston so they could become priests. Each one of them had seen battle and many horrors, and now each one of them wanted to serve God and serve others,” Alex said.

“They could see that my mother was not in control of herself, and they would make it a point to take me and my brother out for walks, and they would talk to us about the things they had seen and learned in battle.” “I knew my mother was also in a battle and it was not really about me, I was a kind of collateral damage of her damage,” he said.

“I think that they helped me to see that I could find peace in myself even if I was in the midst of a battle.” “I mean, I don’t think that was what they meant, or what they were trying to say; they were just trying to get on with their lives, you know.” “What I really believe is that God had touched me and sent me these soldiers to help me learn; they made such a difference for me.”

“I think I was given a touch of the Divine, and I think that helped me to connect with a bit of that ‘peace that exceeds understanding,’ as it says in the Bible.” (1)

Over many years I have worked with a great number of clients who have endured, or who are now enduring the most severe types of life storms: disease, disfigurement, disability, abuse, abandonment, and countless disappointments dripping like raindrops from the branches of a barren and lonely tree.

Innumerable times, I have asked clients undergoing severe storms, how do you survive? How do you cope? More than ninety percent of the time, the person points upwards an index finger, and says, ‘God.’

The providence of God surrounds all of the battles and storms of life, and He has placed a ‘touch of the Divine’ in the deepest recess of our heart. We don’t reach that inner calm through practice of human techniques, but by keeping our heart open even while caught in a storm, so that He might shelter and guide us, in His way. 

When a new storm intrudes into our life, we might wrongly assume it will now always be this way. But even though storms will arrive, they will also pass away, or we might simply find adequate bits of shelter and moments of peace to help us manage.

1. Philippians, 4: 5-7 “Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.’