I wrote this a few days ago, but in the writing, it seemed like I needed to put it down, bored with it, that’s God’s real message for me to stop. Lost His track. But I feel best now to release this now on a rainy day of Sunday rest. I have rehashed it to release it, if only to put away my human frivolity now that I’ve heard about 7 lost souls, passed away, including 2 children, in flash flooding just 20 minutes north of me. It was like 6 inches of rain in like an hour… This brings the meaningless complaints of the weather into light, mine and others. This is real stuff and we can tolerate the little stuff, (can’t we?). And as ‘we weather the weather’ – a great poem – but do we also: weather the whether? Meaning do we get thru life’s unknowns intact? Well, with the Lord’s help, blessings, hope and promise, we can weather the whether… (and the weather)…
…everything God does will endure forever…
Lord, thank you for letting me process with words and in Your Word. Thank you for the beautiful times (and the difficult times) to remind us You are to be feared, loved, respected, known.
Here’s my post (about the weather and the whether):
Unsettled (and Settled)
I watch weather with interest, it is both predictable and unpredictable. Life is unsettled and unpredictable too, so be prepared and depend upon God always… Life is settled only WITH God. He solves the ‘whether?’ with a yes. He makes us able to weather the world.
So with the Lord’s mercy, I share a diatribe of weather (now edited), and a praise of His mercy. And I pray for those families who were swept away now with unbelievable tragedy…
In nature there is normal stuff: my possum visitor, a baby praying mantis, big clunky beetles, fireflies, mosquitoes and moths. And a cat who wants to be outside too.
And the weather…
I embrace the weather forecasts as interesting. Sometimes there are torrents of rain in pockets of “train-ing” – where the system just won’t stop and it floods overwhelmingly. I’m on a hill, I forget to worry sometimes. Flood plains used to be set apart, not so much anymore. Sometimes one area has a drought, sad. Sometimes less than an hour away maybe, it can be completely flooded, devastating… We tend to forget to make our own risk assessments in life WITH prayers, but a quick rise of the unknowns will catch anyone off guard. We even try to trick the weather by taking an umbrella so we won’t need it, good that they are small to carry. Other older times we, especially as children, we lived IN the weather, we would actually own raincoats (hand me downs back then) and ponchos and rain boots (and plastic bags for our feet)… Now we just sometimes wait inside until it’s done, WEIRD. Local – we live local but rarely prep local anymore – we don’t learn how to live in nature either, we have the lack of resiliency that we all slip into. We also don’t depend on the local weather for our food anymore, in a global economy/source way. The blueberries I picked yesterday could be considered a luxury to me, and they were SO good, but to the farmer this is their livelihood, the weather is at God’s mercy for them. Weather is not for our folly but God’s fields. I have many days this week being awoken by the thunder, or downpour and the cat being scared. We had a drought but are now in a typical high humidity summer pattern, yes I said typical, popcorn storms and more. People have been saying how weird the weather is, but I think that statement in itself is strange because it IS normal to have weather that’s different at different times of the year and weather that’s different in different years. YES!
(I think this has been quite a summer for a weather junkie – like me – like a couch tornado chaser, with awe of the variation and variability. But with prayers for those adversely affected.)
I sat outside in the start of a thunderstorm yesterday (the same one that north produced the flooding. Now, before you go tattling on me to my mom (I already told her) it WAS a DISTANT storm for quite a while, and even the cat was not nervous, cleaning herself and minding her own business. The other night, the possum didn’t scare her either. She’s pretty good at gaging situations. Possums, certain beetles and bugs are more cool than anything. The skunk smell however, this morning, clearly dissuaded her from begging for any outside time in her tent. Smart cat. (I have a big screen tent in the backyard to protect myself from mosquitos and my cat too, a small tent to protect AND keep her from escaping). WE LOVE to be outside. Well, yesterday I continually scanned the radar, checked the wind and clouds. Obviously when the rain started and wind, we came inside, the cat knew best too. Half an hour later with cooler temps, I went back out to weed a now softened garden. Yay flowers and eggplant, beans and breaths of fresh air.
People (and me too, even as a gardener) don’t always take in the forecast minute by minute, but CLEARLY the storms are noticeable. I love looking at radars and not guessing, but as always we simply should be ready for everything and have a plan. Do we absorb forecasts as an education? Sometimes. Hopefully we learn at the very minimum to shut our sunroof every time.
Now, the world gone worldly is the common thing and to be expected. That’s in the forecast, you know…
Unsettled is weather but settled is the why. The WHY is simply or untimely answered – we will see that God has done everything in His Kingdom for Our Good – anything worldly IS unsettled and subject to change. How will we weather this? Only by looking OUT of the world, even while in the world. And look at the world as if we were looking thru God’s eyes, with compassion. How then to weather this world? With Him, that’s how. We can settle our hearts with a God Who already settled the score (He won).
Let me wrap up a time of pondering with a pondering of time, by our Ecclesiastes author, chapter 3:1-15. There is a season for everything…
Let us weather the ‘whether?’ with: “YES, LORD”. He’s got the time to help us watch and weather our lives. Accept this as a gift AND a command.
Amen
Ecclesiastes 3 NIV 1-15
A Time for Everything
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.
Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not
Poem by Anonymous
Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot,
We’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.
Debbie Upper 