Surviving the Storm

“And once the storm is over you wont remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person you walked in.”  -Haruki Murakami

Everyone goes through storms both physically and hypothetically. Physically there are so many storms out there that hurt you or scare you. Many of these big storms are hurricanes or tornados. If you go through on of these very physical storms then you have gone through so much. I see or read about how people have to deal with all these emotions and have to rebuild their lives because all they had have washed away. I am thankful so far in my life not to have one of these but it happens so often that its hard to avoid it sometimes. When Cedar Rapids had the flood in 2008 there was so many people that had to either move or change so much about their life. But then I show so many people helping them. That help probably meant everything to some people.

Storms like these are so impactful in someone’s life that it really does change them. They know that the disaster may be over but what next when they have to rebuild their life. It’s hard to come out of something that so physically in painful and hard.

Hypothetically a storm can be anything that mentally, emotionally or physically “hurts” you. I put hurt in quotations because some storms look like they are going to hurt you but then when you come out of it you are so much better off that you cant really say that it hurt you so much that you cant live.

No one is ever certain if the storm has past or if it is just weak at that time. Those moments of wandering can this even get worse or the worse? You have to keep pushing though and making sure that nothing stops you from where you are going. Yes this journey may change you and looking back at storms you already have, you may be changed from those. But those changes are most of the time for the good because storms are supposed to strengthen you.

Think about it this way. God sent a giant storm to kill everyone. But He knew it would change the earth forever. He now reminds us that He will never kill everyone again through these storms and the rainbows afterward. These rainbows don’t just represent a promise but also represents the end or a short break of that storm. It’s there to help us know that we can move on with our lives. Either as changed people or not changed. But still storms will have their troubles along the way. You just have to remember that they will end and that there is a rainbow in the future.