In life, we all have "storms." Bad things or bad times in our lives. Recently, I've had what feels like a hurricane hit me. Within one month, the woman I loved left me and I lost my job, which as much as I complained about my job, and boy did I complain about it, I truthfully loved it. I loved my girlfriend. A lot. Before it all happened, I was so happy, so content to a degree. It was truly a "calm." I had the basic needs in my life, and then the storm began to brew. The Sunday after Christmas, my most recent relationship ended. For weeks afterward, I was devastated. I was in denial, to be honest. I didn't want to believe that someone could just change how they feel overnight and thought it was just a phase and after a couple weeks we could just pick up where we left off. Those couple of weeks went by, and thankfully I had work to take my mind off it. I wasn't worried about her or this situation any longer and I told myself that I wouldn't stress over it any longer. I have never been so wrong. Not long after that, I lost my job over, in my opinion, stupid circumstances. Now it's been over two and a half months since the breakup, and a month and a half since losing my job and I've finally realized something. I remembered this quote that an old friend of mine once said after a local mission trip we did in high school, "don't tell God how big the storm is, tell the storm how big God is." That quote has always stuck with me, but until I had experienced a storm such as this is where I fully understand what that has meant. Along the way, I have been able to attend church more often despite my problems and the first Sunday night I was able to attend in over a year, there was a speaker who talked about these same storms, except for a younger high school audience ( the speaker was mostly for the youth). The speaker was telling the story about Jesus calming the storm in Mark: 35-41. To me, the most powerful words of that are the final ones in verse 41, which say "Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!" (HCSB translation) Through this, I have felt every range of emotion one could possibly imagine. Fear. Sadness. Anger. Rage. Emptiness. Loneliness. Depression. Relief. I feel relief because although I am alone physically, I am not alone spiritually, for our Father is with me. When I pray, I don't ask Him to take care of the storm for me because then I know He won't have a lesson for me. Instead, I ask for guidance to get me out of this. I ask for the perseverance to lead me in the right direction. You see, I am fully aware that I, along with most of us (although most will not admit it), am a "hypocritical" Christian. I believe in the Word, and do my best to live by it but fail. Sometimes intentionally because I fall into secular habits and tendencies. I say that because I know some of you will read this and think "well I know Dylan or I know Chauncey and he's just pandering. He's trying to garner sympathy or he's trying to be someone he isn't." I want those who will be "that guy" to know that you can think what you will, but I am who I am. In conclusion, I want to let those who may read this that don't know Christ that if you are going through problems, or you have your own "storms", that you don't have to go through these alone. Come talk to me, whether it's in person or over text/social media, and I will be more than happy to share the Word of God with you and together, we can discover Jesus. Hope you guys enjoyed the read! If you could, please tell me what you think! I'll be posting this on Facebook where most of my posts will be, and just leave a comment about what you've thought! Thank you so much for reading!
Dylan, aka Chauncey.
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