After you weather the storm you will become a conqueror
– Sherre Webb
What do you do when the storms of life come suddenly, catching you off guard, without your approval, placing you in a fight or flight position? Most people’s reaction is to fight while others take off running, and not in the literal sense of the word. Some people run to alcohol, drugs, partying, sex, spending money they don’t have, or hanging out with people they have no business hanging out with doing things they have no business doing – only to end up right back where they started, having to face the exact same problem they were dealing with in the first place. You can’t become a conqueror until you weather the storms of life, time and time again.
Reality Check: When the storms of life seem too big to bare, your job is to brace yourself, hold onto your faith and do everything in your power to weather the storm. God will do the rest.
This is how we should condition ourselves to approach the storms that come into our lives. It becomes especially hard when the clouds of those storm bring a downpour of problems, seemingly all at one time. One after the other, they flood in making it feel as if you will drown if another problem falls upon your shoulders; but isn’t that the way life seems to work?
We have all heard the saying “When it rains, it pours” and it’s true. It seems when things are going good, they are really good and when things are going bad, they are really bad. If feels as if the hard times will last forever, doesn’t it? It seems as though good times don’t last nearly as long as the difficult ones. Could it be that these are the times when our biggest lessons are learned and we grow into someone we never could have been had it not been for going through hard times? It has been my experience that I morphed into a better version of myself as a result of going through the fire.
Sometimes you have to put the flames out as you push forward. Sometimes, those same flames aren’t meant to be put out because the purpose of that particular storm is to grow your faith and build endurance. It certainly doesn’t feel like it at the time, but the storms come because it is your time to go to the next level. Not only in knowledge, but also in character, strength, and wisdom. I know for a fact that I grew in ways that I never could have had the good times lasted.
Many times we want to avoid the storms in life because they don’t feel good, not realizing they are necessary. Nobody wants to feel pain and I don’t know anyone that appreciates the difficult times while they are in them, well, not usually. Until one matures to the point of understanding that these “not so good times” are meant to make you better and stronger, there is no way to appreciate them while you are in them. It requires a certain growth mindset to be comfortable with being extremely uncomfortable and understand that in these moments is when all the magic happens, even when this doesn’t seem like the case at all.
Reality Check: No one gets to escape the storms of life – No, not one.
It doesn’t matter how much money or influence you have, tough times will come. Maybe not financially if you have money, but in other ways that can’t be resolved with money. Life has a way of teaching each and every one of us the lessons we need individually that will grow us up and mold us into who we are supposed to become and there is no getting around it.
It is human nature to question why you are being faced with a insurmountable challenge in life or to feel as if life isn’t fair because hard times have knocked at your door. Well guess what? Life isn’t fair but God is just and if you understand this principle, weathering the storm takes on a completely different meaning in your life. Eventually, self-pity disappears. You will, instead, look within and discover ways you can actually grow and become a better you. After it’s all said and done, the storms of life, if dealt with properly, will plant within you, a seed that will eventually result in the desire to be of service to others.
Just give it a try. The next time a storm comes into your life, instead of focusing on the problem, ask yourself “What lesson am I supposed to learn from this hardship?” or “How is this helping or serving me?” because believe it or not, everything works for our own good – especially the tough times.
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