Last Thursday there was a powerful lightening and thunderstorm that hit Germany. Trees came down and one of the LutherFest 500 buses was stopped by a tree in the road. Participants got out in the rain and tried to move the tree.
In the Twin Cities the storms came on Friday night. I heard of one family up all night bailing out their sump pump because the power was out. I read of hundreds of thousands without power.
The irony of the storms for us on Luther Fest 500 was that we had spent the day in the footsteps of Luther as he moved through his personal storms. We prayed at the monastery that he went to after the lightening strike led him to cry out to St. Anne that he would become a monk if he was saved from the storm. We prayed in the space where he made his commitment and where his life was changed forever. Ironic that as we walked there we experienced a huge lightening/thunder that led to a deluge. God gives object lessons.
So, I begin to wonder. I met a young man on the airplane flying from Newark to Atlanta. We spent the whole time talking about a major decision he must make. His parents want him to do one thing and he wants to do another. He is 23 and he is torn.
I sit with an 85 year old who celebrates life and wonders, “How do I best serve God with the time I have left?” I hear over and over again from people who know they are at a turning point in life, wondering what they are to do. Wondering where their life will lead them?
Sometimes I wonder if the internal storms are more powerful than the external storms.
I am spending a portion of each day involved with intentional reflection and prayer about God’s direction for my life. Yes, I have some storms and I have some rainbows and all the time I have come to know that it is good. I pray that I would hear and respond to the ways that God might be calling. I sometimes think of what life might be like after this Germany experience. Yet, I know it will be good, whatever it is.
- What storms are raging in your life right now?
- What fears do you have while in these storms?
- What are the choices being laid before you?
- Where do you see and hear God?
