Path Clearing Storms

Daily Gratitude Year 6- Day 171: Today, I choose to be grateful for the storms.

This past 6 weeks seems to stormy for many. This quote resonated deeply this morning. 

"Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path."

The painful, scary, new and unsure ground we walk, just might be our training ground as He clears the path to what comes next. 

This life is an adventure. But... recently... I have been introduced to the idea that it is more of a quest than a journey. Like Indiana Jones, do we seek His face with a passion. What holds us back from diving in with both feet? 

For me, being a safety girl by nature, it takes a storm to get me to move in a different direction. I need one path blocked or another cleared. It takes me awhile, and a stormy intervention at times... until I surrender to His way and His will without forcing not my own. That is the ugly truth, and I probably am not the only one. 

The Israelites and their season with Moses in the desert is one of my favorite places to read and learn. Moses did NOT want to lead the people. He wanted Aaron, the priest, to lead. He had been a Pharaoh's grandson, so power didn't really intrigue him as it does some. He was passionate about the God who loved his people and when they needed a rescue. God let Moses see a Hebrew slave being beaten to death, and Moses intervened killing the cruel slavemaster, instead.  He fled to the desert. Talk about a storm in his life. 

Read Exodus 3. Moses fled to the wilderness of Midian and married Zipporah. His father-in-law, Jethro, was a priest, like his brother Aaron. They were in his inner circle. Moses was out shepherding when God sent an Angel of the Lord to appear in the flame of a burning bush, and then God spoke directly to Moses of his God assignment. Moses was full of questions and arguments. Moses surrendered. Some would say, "God won". That may be true, but it was Moses free-willed act of submission to a God who had big plans for him that interrupted history, changing the lives of an entire nation. God led him to save his people out of slavery. God's will worked out for the good of all who loved him. Imagine that? 

Some would say one storm led to another, for Moses. And, that may be true. But in Moses's quest for God and the truth, he found one of the most intimate relationships ever recorded in the scriptures. I used to feel sorry for Moses that he didn't get to enter the promised land, but it was Joshua's turn to lead. Heaven is even better than any land of milk and honey on earth. And... Joshua would help them remember their days in the wilderness under Moses's leadership with stones of remembrance. 

I am pretty sure this one chapter or two in Exodus could keep me challenged, fed and growing for weeks. Maybe even months. 

Don't forget to take of your shoes and embrace the talking bush. The very thing that feels like a storm, just might be holy ground. 

Today, I choose to be grateful for the storms.