Welcome to Facets of Faith!  We invite you to linger and let God’s love and leading speak to your heart. This month we talk about, What Helps you Sing in April’s Showers?  What would God have us do in the midst of a storm? Stay awhile and read what He put on my (Tracy’s) heart and check back over the coming weeks to see what Jennifer & Kim have to say on this topic.

Let’s be singers in the rain as we explore God’s heart for us.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop on a rainy day listening to a conversation I’m trying not to hear. Damp. Grey. Language as angry as the clouds outside threatening storms.

Have you ever been there?

You intend to do your thing, but as you sit, minding your own business, the words, vocabulary, circumstances connect to your story. No longer just white noise to create atmosphere, you can’t help but tune in. The words too close to your story. Maybe one you wouldn’t write, but we don’t always get to choose the words written and the way our life will go.

Some things we have control of.  Others we do not. Mostly we do not.

The conversation consists of things you are curious to learn more about. You silently listen, absorb, and process from a safe distance.  They are not close to you, even as you are connected as human beings. But they are not your people, so you can listen from life’s sidelines. Listen and learn. (And weep a little inside.)

Your heart breaks for them and their struggle even as it breaks for yourself and those you love, who are in the midst of a similar storm of struggle and emotion.

This person’s story connects to mine. Indirectly. But still. I hear when I want to write. I guess that’s God’s plan.  To write about this. I’ve never visited this coffee shop. Felt led to come this way, rather than that, so I know God’s intention was for me to hear it. Even when sometimes I just want to stop up my ears, to not hear.

When it hurts, and we know it, don’t we all want to turn the channel and listen to something else? A little more up tempo please. Change the channel from the angry metal or the melancholy blues. Something more like, Don’t Worry Be Happy.  (Sorry if you whistle the tune for the rest of the day.)

I can’t unhear. I can’t disconnect. I can process my emotions. I can seek to understand. I can always love. Always. Because that’s what Jesus would do, and I want to be like Him, to love as He does.

The hardest times for me to love others well is when loving them seats itself right next to my own woundedness. A nerve touched, still at the surface. Maybe it should be gone. But it’s not.  Some things take time. In my opinion too much, but God says, “Take the time you need.” Because He is good like that. So good to give us the time we need.

Some things fade but may never disappear. Fully.

Do you have those things too? Those subterranean wounds you’d rather leave well enough alone. You’ve dealt with them, mostly.

Honestly, I’m not sure my inner struggle will ever disappear. It’s there. Like Paul’s thorn that wounds, but also serves as a reminder he needs God’s grace and strength to see him through.  I need those too. Strength and grace. Because sometimes when you bump into the thorn it penetrates. It reminds you the wound is still there, in need of God’s strength and grace. His mercy. His love. Desperate for it. We all are, whether we know it or not.

Avoiding pain is something we all do at times. Me? Sometimes, it’s my defense. I am not deaf to pain or fear or the noise our broken nature makes inside each of us. It makes a ruckus sometimes, reminding us we are alive, reminding us we need Jesus. Every day.

I just don’t always want to stare it down. I can’t even always bring myself to pray about and through it. Sometimes, I grow weary in the rainy season.  It can get muddy and messy (and ruin all my favorite shoes)!  I need to remember to grab my galoshes and splash through life’s seasons.

What helps me sing in April’s showers?

What, indeed?

What helps me sing in April’s showers?

Sometimes, I need to remind myself.  Life can be hard sometimes. There can be seasons that feel harsh and dry, like a desert. Parched. Cracked. Almost dead. I’ve experienced those where it felt like I was on the brink and God brought me back. To Him. To Life. To the possibility of love and hope and joy.

Jubilant!  The stuff that cause you to sing in the rain. Splash in the puddles. Have joy in spite of circumstances.

Christ’s death on the cross helps us to do just that.

I really think we have a choice. We get to make a conscious choice to sing even during April’s showers.

One effective strategy to help us sing in April’s showers is to choose joy.

When thunderous clouds threaten to overtake our world, we can let them.  Or we can choose otherwise.  We can choose to lament, or we can choose joy.  We can break open fresh gifts of grace that give us access to God’s joy.

Joy is a weapon that helps me sing.

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la….

Joy sitting in the midst of a storm? We all can do it, in Christ’s power.  In our own strength joy is sometimes downright impossible. Let’s face it. Life can be overwhelming.

We can choose to sit in the overwhelm or we can choose joy.

Joy is the best choice. It’s the choice that lets us live life instead of succumbing to what the enemy would want for us─languishing.  The enemy would rather we lay like the person in need of healing for 38 years, when all we need to do is crawl to the healing pond of Christ’s love and joy.

Choosing joy takes energy. We have to move toward it.

You want to know what’s pretty amazing?

Even if we only have enough energy to lean a little toward it, God’s grace pulls us closer into His joy. Just lean, sweet ones. Lean in.

Another effective strategy to help us sing in April’s showers is to choose prayer in the middle of an anxious, angry storm.

It’s not about Don’t Worry Be Happy, it’s about be anxious about nothing and through prayer and petition let God’s peace consume us. God’s peace as a guard for our hearts and minds.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.─Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV

Let your requests be made known to God.

Even as I sit here (still listening) I seek God. I could let the circumstances of this scene overwhelm me with anxiety or I can pray. I can pray some more. And pray some more.

Any “normal” person would feel anxiety at an overwhelming circumstance that hits a little too close to home.  I wonder, “Why am I here? What does God have for me in this? What does God have for the ones He has me in the midst of hearing right now?”

This isn’t just about me. It never is just about us.  We’re included, for sure.  But especially if we are His children, this is always about others as well.   The light within us He wants to reach out to others, even if it makes us a little anxious.

I felt the anxiety as I got up to go to the bathroom.  Quietly, in my head, “God, how do You want me to respond in this?”

In effect, what do you want me to do with this? There IS a reason I am here. Right now. Listening. Lamenting. Choosing joy. Trying to focus on the written word as I hash this out.

I can feel my adrenaline kick in. What to do? What to do?

Choosing love. But what does that look like in this situation?

I have NO IDEA!

Guess what? I pray some more to let my adrenaline slow so I can hear God. Anxiety clouds our thinking more than just about anything else. And we definitely need clear heads to make wise decisions, especially in an emotional storm.

Another effective strategy to help us sing in April’s showers is to choose courage in the middle of a tsunami.

I reflect on Pastor Scott’s sermon about adventure as a believer and whom Jesus dined with. He didn’t sit with all the prim and proper. He sat with those who needed Him most and were most receptive to Him and His love, because the depths of their need for Him was great.

Let’s face it. None of us is really all that prim and proper. We are works in progress each and every one of us.  We all need His love. None of us has it fully together. Aren’t we all just figuring it out as we go?

I know I am!

So I mustered up the courage to approach their table, the wounded broken ones who were courageous enough to speak of these things aloud.  (Tears now, because once you push through the anxiety and pray, relief floods.)

I walked up to these two who need Jesus’ love just like I do. I briefly shared how I connect with their story, handed my business card (the only thing I had handy), with handwritten scribbles “The Chapel, Grayslake”. An invitation to come and see.

Someone gave me that once, an invitation. And look at how my life has changed for the good. So grateful! So blessed! Even as my life isn’t perfect, I recognize it as good.

Sometimes we have to face down our own personal fear and anxiety so someone else can know God’s goodness. Today, I’m feeling brave.   And my prayer is that someone else will grow to know God’s goodness because God drew me here.

As Pastor Scott reminded us in his sermon, we ARE God’s plan. I’m grateful for his reminder. It gave me the gumption to step into my own personal scary place, to push past my personal fear, and to invite them into God’s peace and love.

And now I can exhale.

THEY are why I came here. He sent me. He had me search my reservoir of emotions. He knew I would be sensitive to their story because it bumped up against mine.  It was hard, a spiritual hurdle, because their brokenness brushes up against mine.

The enemy would want shame and fear, but Christ’s plan for us is courage and life. Every ounce of good we give to the world helps evil shrink. Darkness recedes because it cannot coexist with light and love.

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.─Philippians 1:20-21 NIV

I eagerly expect. Isn’t that great?

We can eagerly expect Christ to show up with courage and bring life to us and others.  I was dying a bit inside with the angst of this situation, of what I was hearing. Of what their story was stirring up in mine. But God. But God gave me an eager expectation and hope that He has a plan. For me. For those precious two He sent me to hear, for them to feel seen and heard (literally), and receive an invitation and hug from God through my arms.

This was for me too. I know that full well. Another level of freedom. No shame. Only love. And waves of grace.

Maybe not fully free, but a little freer today for having faced down fear. Courage sufficient for this day to help me sing in the rain.

Another effective strategy to help us sing in April’s showers is to remember facing our storms with strength and joy reveal God’s glory.

This life is not our own. We are God’s children left here for a reason. People see and know God, in part, when they see and know God through us, through our story, through the way we receive them, through the way we love. We are so flawed and imperfect, yet God dwells within us as believers.  He guides our steps.  He uses us to impact others.

He shows Himself real, manifesting ever-so-powerfully when we walk through a storm well. Never alone. Like Peter when He calls us out of the boat, God helps us walk on water.  We may freak out and start to sink, but all we need to do is look up and let Him lift us as He speaks to the storm and calms it.

When you find yourself holding your breath, as I often do when I feel stressed, breathe Christ in. Breathe deeply. Slowly. Let Him calm your nerves and guide your steps.

He tells us the way to go. And we are never alone in the going.

For all the gods of the nations are idols,

   but the LORD made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before him;

   strength and joy are in his dwelling place.

Ascribe to the LORD, all you families of nations,

   ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

─1 Chronicles 16:26-28 NIV

When we do the brave thing and take courage? God’s glory is revealed.

And in that a rainbow of promise, because color emerges bright and vibrant after a grey storm recedes.

How is God speaking to you in this? What song does He wish for you to sing?

Sing to the LORD a new song;

   sing to the LORD, all the earth.

Sing to the LORD, praise his name;

   proclaim his salvation day after day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

   his marvelous deeds among the peoples.

─Psalm 96:1-3 NIV

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