Ok, I guess I should give some small explanation for why "The Sun and the Storm." The name of my ministry is SunStorm Productions. The name came to me like this...
One day many years ago when my children were very young, I was driving with my daughter Caryn; at that time she was about 5-6 years old. It was heavily raining and I commented "Wow! Some rainstorm, huh?" Being in Oregon the old adage "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes" does actually hold true and after a few minutes of thunder & rain & dark clouds the thunder quieted, the rain dribbled off, and the dark clouds parted to reveal a bright blue sky with a brighter yellow sun blazing down on us. I reached up and pulled down my sun-visor then looked at my daughter, who was squirming under the solar onslaught and still too small to reach the visor on her side. I reached over and pulled down her visor but alas, she was also too small to realize any benefit from its sun-shading properties and hid, squinting, behind her up-held hands. After just a few seconds she said "Dad? Is this a Sun Storm?"
Of course at the time I laughed at the innocence and child-like perspective of the comment but for some reason, that phrase, "SunStorm" sort of stuck with me. I thought about it often over the next few days about how different the words were. The Sun and the Storm. Light & Dark. The Good times and the Hard times. Times of Blessing, Times of Want. Times of Clarity, Times of Confusion. The cycles of life, ups & downs, good & bad, yin & yang.
Think about the oppositeness of their natures. The Sun, with it's life-giving warmth & brilliance always speaks to me of summer days out-of-doors, laughter of children playing in sprinklers and chasing one another. Of picnic tables spread with picnic food, friends and family gathered around, telling stories, laughing. It also speaks to me in other terms. It speaks to me of spiritual and financial blessing, times of rest & ease. Times of confidence, in knowing you are where you belong, doing what you should be doing. Times of Peace.
It also brings back memories from my own childhood. Memories of a young lad, flying along on his golden Schwinn butterfly handle-barred, banana-seated bicycle; resplendent in the exultation of his youth, his power, his freedom. Aahhh... give me a moment if you will ...
Ok, I'm back.
And of course the Storm also has it's personal connotations. When I was very young, I was scared quite badly by a thunder storm and absolutely terrified by a flash of lightning that I can, to this day, close my eyes and still see fracturing the dark sky with its awesome, irresistible power and like a impossibly huge invisible beast, shredding the clouds with it's explosion of thunderous, concussive roars.
To me the Storm speaks of the "hard times," the scary times when things aren't going so well and you feel small, alone and abandoned. When finances and relationships are both strained. When the path that was sooo clear in the Summer Sunlight becomes grey-smudged and vague in the darkness & gloom of the Winter Storm. When one is no longer totally assured that one is traveling the path; doing the work.
We've all had "hard times" but does that mean we were all wandering off the path during the storm? I don't think so. Even as your heart pumps, cycling blood through you body, Life also pumps, cycling good times & bad through your soul. C. S. Lewis' wife, Joy Gresham put it this way: "The pain now is part of the happiness then-that's the deal." The Good and the Bad weave together to create the fabric of your life and we all influence how that fabric is made by the choices we make. Lewis said that as we mature and come to understand this cycle, this balance it alters our choices. "The boy chooses safety. The man chooses suffering." We need to embrace the Storm as well as the Sun. The Storm can be a time of testing... not to show God what we're made of but to show US.
Like Job, losing everything except his faith in God, sometimes the Storm shows us that we CAN stand through the tempest.
Like Peter, walking across the pitching water and distracted by his circumstances, losing sight of his goal, sometimes the Storm reveals to us not what is truly important, but what is truly important to us.
Like Joseph, having been repeatedly thrown into slavery & captivity and yet coming out the other side with forgiveness & compassion for his brothers, sometimes the Storms we survive give us a unique compassion for those that are currently IN Storms of their own.
So, what is it that carries one through the storm? What is it that helps one to stand firm in the face of adversity? What gives one the power to lean into the storm and say "I will NOT be moved" ?
It is not my MIND. Logically "The Blessing" should follow those who are called. "God's will, God's bill" right? I mean if finances fail, one MUST be doing something wrong or going in the wrong direction. What other reason could there be? Either this man sinned or his parents did...
I don't believe it is my WILL either. That brute strength, stand up and take it like a man, come hell or high water determination will only carry us so far. After that the weariness sinks in; seeps into our bones. Turns them to water. One can only stand up against the pressure for so long.
It is certainly not my emotions. I don't know about you, but MY feelings begin whining in times of trouble. "But I haven't done anything WRONG! Why is this happening TO ME, Lord? Why are YOU doing this TO ME?"
So what is it keeps us in the air when we should fall?
Faith.
The kind of Faith that can reconcile the existence of a loving God with the suffering that abounds in the world He created. The kind of Faith that can give breath to the facts that the mind knows: that God is love and everything He does is motivated by love and is for our good... regardless of how it may appear. The kind of Faith that can take our will by the lapels, point it in the right direction, and shove it up against what our mind knows to be true forming a shield against the Storm. The kind of Faith that gently guides our emotions into that place of shelter and shows us how much He must love us to put us through the Storm for our good.
I've heard it said that Christianity is just a crutch. You lean on it when you don't understand. To those people I've said "Yeah... you're right. So, when your leg is broken and you cannot move on your own what do YOU lean on? When you come up against a contradiction that you cannot understand, what do YOU turn to?" They make it sound like it's a bad thing, as though crutches are never needed, as though no one presupposed anything and I'm afraid that's just silly.
Decide what is true. Find your own set of core beliefs. Cling to them when you can't stand on your own. Make them simple enough that they can't be argued. Don't select silly things like "God is NOT an old black woman!" or "Only saying the name J-E-S-U-S will save you." Choose things that are simple, that cannot be argued. Things like "God is." "God is Love." "God loves ME." "Everything God does is motivated by Love for me." Then when you FEEL unloved tell you feelings that's not possible 'cause God Loves ME. When your circumstances lead you to believe that God is angry with you and punishing you, explain to your mind that Everything God does is motivated by LOVE for me.
Will we, as the Casting Crowns song says "Praise You in this storm" ? Get together with your Mind, Will, and Emotions and have a nice loooong chat. You might pick up a nice mocha or latte... you're gonna need it. :)
Scott Bettis
scottbettis.blogspot.com
www.scottbettis.com
