The Violence of Cleansing

I left work today in a blinding storm. Rain so hard that even with the wipers on high I could barely see the road. Wind battering the huge drops into my windshield until they sounded like hail, but they weren’t. The kind of storm where you run 10 feet and dive into your car, but you’re already soaked.

After lots of wind, lightning, thunder and heavy, heavy rain it blew over. Although there are dark clouds in the distance as I write this, there is calm where I am, and the sunlight is struggling to break through. I actually see a rainbow from my window right now…

A storm is cleansing. Loose leaves are blown off the trees, old branches are broken off, the heavy rain thoroughly cleanses the dust off of everything, the runoff washes the dirt and mud away, and afterwards there is freshness, coolness, newness.

The very violence of the storm is its cleansing power.

So it is with life.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

If there is a storm in your life right now, I would encourage you to ask God “What’s this all about? What is it in my life that can only be cleansed by the harshness of the storm against me? What it is that God can only accomplish right now that He couldn’t under other circumstances?”

There is a purpose for it, if indeed you are following after His will and His ways.