Storms

I should have known “it” was coming.  The forecasters on the evening and morning news had foretold of its arrival.  The doorman at the hotel warned me to carry an umbrella when I left.  The sky looked menacing.  Others were preparing for something severe.  The air even felt strange.  Yet, I blissfully and ignorantly walked out unprepared, unshielded, without protection of any kind. 
I wish that the depths of my ignorance were limited to simply defying the weather.  As I found myself ducking for cover while dodging the increasingly large raindrops, it was blatantly obvious that I was totally exposed.  My expectations of a warm summer day were na?ve.  My assumptions that I was immune to the ravages of nature were only grounded in my imagination.  My pride assumed I was protected.  In the end, I was soaked and informed by experience.
Life is going to be filled with pain.  Life will contain challenges, obstacles, and encounters with Evil.  Life will be unfair and unyielding.
These are facts.  I can deny, but they are real.  I can ignore, yet they will still touch my life.  I can behave as if they do not exist, only to find myself changed by the experience that comes from our meeting.
The alternative is to listen, be informed, and be present to the moment.  When “God let him [our forefather] know that his offspring would move to an alien country where they would be enslaved and brutalized for four hundred years,” (Acts 7.6) he did not shrink, ignore, or deny.  He walked and lived in the moment at hand.  You and I have the opportunity to do the same.
When the storm broke, I found myself wet to the core.  When the front blew through, the cool breeze eased the sense of impending gloom.  With a fresh face, an unexpected gift of the elements, I knew that everything was possible. 
It is good to learn along the way.  It is even better, that is, it is more fun and filled with hope, to put the lessons to life into practice.