Destruction, Desolation, Death

♪And it’s Your eye in the storm watching over me. And it’s Your eye in the storm wanting only good for me. And if You are the war let me be the casualty 'til I’m Yours alone♫ -"Hurricane" by Jimmy Needham

Destruction. Desolation. Death. Scary isn't it? These words have meaning that most of us cannot even begin to grasp.  The lyrics are from "Hurricane" by Jimmy Needham. I had heard this song on the radio before and even knew all the lyrics, but up until this past Fall, I was not able to grasp what the song was really about.  One weekend, I was working at Camp Longridge, and the oh so wonderful Addie Ridgeway had this song as her alarm. I woke up to this song and had it stuck in my head all day...all weekend in fact.  When I got back to Rock Hill, I proceeded to listen to it over and over and over and over again.  It was then that the meaning really hit me.

This song is about destruction, desolation, and death. But it is a beautiful disaster all happening within the shadows of our Lord and Savior. From the world's point of view, those 3 D's are horrible; however, with God, nothing in life is horrible. God is the driving force behind all of the storms in our life, but even though He may allow us to go through them, we must always remember that also means that he is always in control of it all.

"It's Your eye in the storm watching over me. And it's Your eye in the storm wanting only good for me." If you've ever done the slightest bit of research on hurricanes, you will know that the eye of the hurricane is the middle of it. Now logically you would think that the middle would be the harshest and most dangerous place to be, but the opposite is actually true. The eye of the storm is calm and peaceful, but there is no way to get into the eye of the storm without going through the rough turmoil first. In the midst of all the turmoil we face in life, God is the eye of our storm. He is our peace, comfort, and present help in time of need.  He is always there watching over us and wanting what is best for us.  Here's the catch though, we cannot stay in the eye forever, we must move beyond the storm, and that requires us to go through the whole storm yet again. But don't forget that He is ultimately in control of the storm itself.

Now what about the last part of the lyric above? "And if You are the war, let me be Your casualty 'til I am Yours alone." Now I can make my own meaning and judgment about this lyric, but I honestly cannot say it any better than Jimmy Needham himself put it.  When asked about this song, Jimmy Needham says that "We want God to come to us, and He shows up in a lot of different ways. He comes as a loving Father; he comes as a friend, as an encourager, as a healer...But sometimes He shows up as a hurricane, and the God we thought came to comfort us actually came to wreck us. It looks tragic, but nothing could be further from the truth. When God destroys us, it is only so He can build us back up again."  Wow. I believe I could end this blog here and leave us all with plenty to think about...but I will continue.

Sometimes, God is not the eye, but the storm itself. God comes to wreck us. When muscles are torn, they grow back stronger.  I like to think that God is working on a similar principle.  He breaks us and tears us down, only to make us stronger. He will sometimes step in and wreck us so that we are a casualty and we have nothing but Him to cling to.  And although destruction, desolation, and death all seem tragic, dying to ourselves should be a daily display of commitment. Jesus said in Matthew 16:25, "Whoever will save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it."  We must be willing to die to ourselves and to be resurrected and ready to live for Him.

So here's the challenge, in the storms of life, always remember that God is either the eye in the storm in which case He will comfort you and be your hope, or He is the storm itself and is destroying you to make you stronger. Either way, you will find that the turmoil of the storm will eventually pass, and that He will end up being the wind at your back and the sun on your face. He will be your blues skies until hurricane season rolls around again.