As the thunder cracked all around me, the lighting lit up the sky and the rain started falling at a swift pace I contemplated, do I wait it out or do I head home? I imagined a longer debate in my mind but surprisingly I grabbed my belongings and headed for the door. Awkwardly I ran to my car feeling the rain falling so heavy it soaked through my clothes in the 30 seconds it took me to get to shelter. Part of the issue; I am no longer a runner, I once was, triathlons actually but that is clearly not my life any more. I digress.

Soaked through my clothes, sitting in he car, almost excited to drive home in this storm I found it a bit ironic that while some, even most people may see this type of storm as scary, destructive or even inconvenient I found it beautiful and not for the reasons you may think. Beautiful because the typical “do things without thinking” type mindset had to be disrupted. Beautiful because I had to pay closer attention while driving home instead of allowing my mind to wander. Beautiful because it reminded me that thunder is actually caused by lightning, the main lightning channel to be exact, as it reaches the ground. Beautiful becuase it reminded me of the storms that literally have disrupted my own life in the past, yet, here I stand.

As each lightning bolt caught my eye it reminded me that very complex things happen inside that cloud in order to make a lightning bolt. That God himself created every facet of this beautiful part of nature. The heat and the ice inside the cloud, the exact time for the negative charge in the cloud releases and how it then reaches down from the sky to meet a positive charge coming up from the ground to form a complete lightning bolt. Then it hit me. In life we are faced with man fire and ice moments inside our minds. Moments when we feel every negative charge is too much to handle and we can’t help but release the energy. The issue comes when we realase it in an unhealthy manner. So, what is your lighting and where are you striking.

My past consisted of releasing energy by means of shopping, binge eating, shutting down or lashing out and many others. Today however, I can honestly say there is beauty in understanding my own anxiety and where to focus that energy, it’s on Jesus. When I feel my shoulders start to tense or my mind start to wander down the dark and twisty road I can refocus my thoughts by just speaking the name of Jesus; I am reminded He is with me. He is with me to walk through the thoughts that start with “what if” and anyone who has faced anxiety knows where that goes. It’s always followed by “I’m not enough” “they don’t like me/what I did” or “I failed.” I have taught myself to remember …even IF those things are true, which they rarely are, the truth I can remember is to “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” 1 Peter 5:7

When life starts to overwhelm me or challenges keep coming, I speak the name of Jesus and I am comforted. I will not be the person who says storms will no longer come your way just by speaking the name of Jesus. In fact, it’s been said you may experience, or at least notice them more but the absooutely beautiful (Kalos) part is that we have someone to reach out to, to relase that lighting charge out to who will be on the other end who will guide and be with us in evey moment of the storm.