Letting It All Out (Keys to Surviving The Storm)

You’ve been thrown onto a leaky boat in the middle of The Storm.  You’re forced to leave the warm, familiar shore of comfort, and it’s disappearing rapidly.  Broken in spirit, crushed in your heart, what do you do now?  Look for supplies, try rowing back to shore, hoist a sail?  Maybe you’ll pull out your survival guide, “Keys to Surviving The Storm”, and that’s what some of these blogs detail.

One thing “good Christians”do poorly is grieve.  Oh, maybe there’s a tear shed here and there.  A little pity party, and then we bite our lip and declare that it’s going to be okay.  God has a plan.  He doesn’t give me more than I can handle.  And we try to move forward in the storm, denying the depth of the grief, anger and confusion we feel. 

The result is often someone who suddenly leaves their faith.  It seems like one day they just stopped believing God is there for them.  He doesn’t answer prayer.  He can’t be trusted. But it didn’t happen in one day.  It was a lifestyle of keeping hidden the real feelings in their hearts.  And in those secret places, bitterness and disbelief grew.

Our friends and family get uncomfortable when we’re still hurting and angry.  We get affirmation for putting on a happy face and saying that it’s going to be okay.  And can we really trust God with our true feelings?  Could we possibly tell him how hurt, confused and angry we are?

If he can’t be trusted with our true feelings now, let’s get it over and done with.  Wouldn’t you rather know the truth today, than to slap on that happy face and walk away bitter years from now? Unless we empty all the secret places of disappointment, God will never be able to fill them.

David was declared a man after God’s own heart.  Yet, he was such a sinner.  What made him so special to God? I think it was because he opened his heart.  Truly, ruthlessly opened his raw, wounded heart.  I can barely read sections of his Psalms out loud without blanching. Such gut wrenching honesty that I don’t think I could say out loud as a “good Christian”.  But David opened all the secret places of his heart, and God was trusted.  He proved himself trustworthy.

One key to surviving this Storm is to be brutally honest with God with all of your feelings. You only have your preconceived notions of what you should be doing to lose.  You have God’s grace, understanding, mercy, love, forgiveness, acceptance, trust to gain.

Next time we’ll discuss ways to let it all out safely.  Because even though God can be trusted completely, not all of his people can be.  Oh yes, and God does give us more than we can handle.  He does it a lot.