in a flash

I was driving home late tonight in the middle of one of the most amazing storms I have seen in quite some time (I love storms!). The lightning was spectacular. Huge raindrops were beating against my windshield and the road had that slick, wet glisten on it that makes it hard to see when it rains at night. But I didn’t mind driving slow—I was enjoying the lightning.

The lightning made me think about God, about how he shows up in our lives sometimes. As I watched the jet black sky abruptly being lit up by bolts of electricity, I remembered all of the times that God has broken into my world—completely out of nowhere, when everything was dark and the rains poured all around me—unannounced, He was there.

With God, things have the potential to turn around in an instant. As I heard one pastor put it on Sunday, “Trusting in God changes all the possibilities.” I have come to realize that I never know just when an answer to my prayers is going to come. Time and time again, God sweeps in and lights up my world without any warning.

My life has had a lot of unexpected but exciting changes during the last month or so—many steps of faith and much waiting—but with every change, God has been right there, sending His flashes of light to illuminate my path. Such is the life of faith, I suppose—learning when we are to take steps of faith into the darkness, and when to be confident enough in God to stand still right where we are and wait for Him to shed His light.

That's the beauty of darkness... The moment we least expect it could be the moment God is about to break into our world.