Storm Clouds

You can see them coming, boiling and tumbling in from the west, massive thunderheads pushing the front along far more rapidly than you can anticipate.  What initially seems like a simple dark spot on the horizon quickly morphs into a dark mass of lightening, thunder, and occasional downpours.  It is hard on a day which begins in bright sun to anticipate this development, yet on that day it was far too real.
 
In life the metaphors often play out two ways.  I see and anticipate, or see and ignore.  Either way the process ends up with a storm overwhelming me and everyone in my vicinity.  There is little on can do to prepare for it, even if you took the time to see it coming.  Additionally, one naturally assumes storms are always due to something bad – in your life or mine. 
 
There is an alternative view which is I find myself often missing.  If God is intimately involved in life, as my experience tells me Divinity is, then why are storms good or bad?  There is little question that bad things can cause storms and conflicts.  It is equally true that the trigger can be a simple act of kindness, a gift of compassion, or moment of acceptance.  We live in a world filled with good and evil.  It is na?ve to believe the two can coexist together; at some point if one lives one must choose. 
 
In This context the battle, metaphorically and in the real of good and evil physically, rages.  “For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, is bringing a day noisy with mobs of people, jostling and stampeding in the Valley of Vision, knocking down walls and hollering to the mountains, ‘Attack!  Attack!’  Old enemies Elam and Kir arrive armed to the teeth—weapons and chariots and cavalry.”  (Isaiah 22.5, 6) 
 
The reality of storm clouds or bright sun should not change our view or distract us from our true mission.  The world is a difficult place, filled with tragedies and hardships.  Always remember, we are here, in this moment, to make the difference.