After the Storm, What?

Generally it’s about rebuilding, restoring.

Yesterday. it was safe on the inside and that remains.

However today, we are forced to look at trying to resume some level of normalcy.

That can be easy for some, while it can be difficult for others.

What does restoration and rebuilding look like for us after we have been through a storm? Some may say it depends on the type of storm we have had to face and the severity of it.

Different types of storms - natural, manmade, emotional, financial, spiritual.

The folk in the Virgin Islands just came through a natural disaster and thanks be to God we can say the physical, visible storm has passed. But I think we can also all acknowledge that it’s not fully over. 

There is debris to clean up, trees to replant, some may need to purchase some things that were broken as you seek to replace them. Some things disappeared. Some things stayed in place.

The storm came, there was nothing we could do about it, but try to prepare and be safe.

But after the storm, what? 

Like an earthquake there are after shocks.  How do we deal with the side effects, reactions etc from our storms?

Of course, I’ve just come through a natural disaster, tropical storm Ernesto. You might be going through some other kind of storm today.

How are we reacting to the storms of life? What effect is your storm having on your life?

This is where assessment comes in, because we cannot sit idly by and allow the storms of life to get us down, overwhelm us or hold us back from progressing in life.

Yes storms cause damage. We may lose infrastructure or we may lose friends.

But with God, we know that there is always hope for repair, revival, renewal and restoration.

It is important for us to acknowledge the problem areas highlighted in the storm and build on those areas where we remained strong.

In all of this, we are called on to look to the Word of God for direction, for help, for solutions.

Some may say it’s not as easy as that. I say yes it is. It only gets difficult when we choose not to apply what the Word of God says.

Everything we need to know is in the Word.

Now, coming through a storm doesn’t mean everything will be ok forever. Because guess what, there will be more storms, and sometimes more severe. 

Sometimes, having come through a storm some people become lackadaisical, complacent, and they fail to take the necessary precautions to prevent the reoccurrence of a similar situation.

Yesterday, I chose to fill up the generator with diesel and get two extra bottles full as standby, because I wasn’t sure when the power would be back. 

One thing I couldn’t plan for, and that’s the thing with storms, you just never know how hard they would hit and what would be the impact. 

So we can’t really plan for storms, or maybe we must and that’s why we get insurance, so that in the event of a storm, we have the coverage we need to bounce back.

But even the insurance company would need to have an assessment done of the storm damage so they could adequately provide the coverage and payout we deserve.

Equally with a spiritual storm, as Christians, we know they will come. We must be prepared, We must know how to go through. And we must know how to bounce back. After the storm, what? Because storms will come. And we must go on living.

After the storm, we definitely cannot go back to our old ways. After the storm, we definitely cannot make the same mistakes again. After the storm, we must be better, stronger, wiser. After the storm, we must be able to encourage someone going through a similar situation, and be able to say to them, this too shall pass. We should be able to encourage them with the Word of God, as we were encouraged.

Many times, having gone through a storm, many lounge right back into life without going through a healing process. Healing is extremely important so that we do not become or remain traumatized by the storm.

Counseling is extremely important and this could be from someone who has gone through what you are going through, it could be from a Pastor or licensed Therapist. 

After the storm, what? What type of storm re you facing now? Family issues, financial issues, health issues? 

How severe is your storm? Nothing to write home about so you sweep it under the rug and before you know it, it blossoms into something major? 

Storms are no joke and we definitely should examine our situations and make sure we can identify our storms, know how to deal with them, and how to recover well.

aub - 18 Aug 24

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