Storm Chaser Kid

There was a storm last night. Our fried telephone, garage door opener, internet connection, box fan, Xbox and printer are living (or should I say dead) proof that the lightning was fierce. And right when it all began, my mother and I were swimming in Lake Michigan.

We had attempted to ignore the thunder, but after the first lightning bolt struck we decided that it might be a good idea to get out of the water. We headed up to a bench on the bluff to eat PB&J (it's a tradition) and watch the storm roll in.

I noticed a camera set up on a tripod at the edge of the bluff. It pointed toward the lighthouse in anticipation of the coming storm. A young man in his late teens was parked in front of us, his Jeep sporting a license plate that stood for "South Haven storm chaser."

He was serious business.

Or at least he felt like he was.

A weather radio was attached to his car, and through the static we listened to the dull voices of weathermen forcasting impending doom while we calmly ate our sandwiches and watched the sky light up with bolts. My mother asked him questions like, "What do you do when it starts to rain?"

"Oh, my camera gets wet. It's sealed," he replied confidently. He even showed us some of the bolts that he had captured during last week's storm.

When the radio sounded the thunderstorm warning alert, we decided to hightail it back home. Weather boy, however, laid back in the grass and waited for the action to begin.

Ten minutes later we drove back by. Even the confident storm chaser had decided to bring his camera into his car after the seventy mile-per-hour winds, torrential downpour and constant flashes of lightning began.

This morning I was laughing to myself as I remembered his "cool as a cucumber" attitude about what was about to happen. Yes, his camera may have been sealed, but I don't think he was prepared to keep it from blowing off of the bluff and down to the beach below.

My laughter stopped when I realized that storm chaser kid and I have a lot in common. I pride myself in the fact that I'm not really afraid of anything, yet when something treacherous heads my way, I tend to worry constantly. Even when I have no doubt that I'm prepared to take anything, somehow I always seem to crumble under the weight of the world.

This is not, however, a hopeless business. Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 12:9-

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

When I am at my worst is when Jesus can prove Himself to be everything that He has promised to be. This is all about Him anyway, right? If I think that I, replete with every kind of weakness, am strong enough to face this world and everything that comes my way on my own, I am in for a very rude awakening.

Oh, but to experience the strength that comes when we come to the end of ourselves and allow His sufficient grace to abound to us. Don't try to face the storm in your own strength, my friend. Life is too short not to grab a hold of His.