Praise You In This Storm

I love my iTunes. I don’t even own an iPod, and I still love iTunes. We have uploaded most all of our cd’s to the iTunes on our computer and usually choose to purchase songs from the iTunes store instead of buying the physical cd’s.

Tonight, I visited the online store; however, I didn’t have any particular song in mind for my visit. Most of the time, I use the main page as a guide to keep me up to date on the current “top songs” in multiple categories. I enjoy ministering to teens and I’ve always felt it important to immerse myself into their culture, even if their music tastes are not in line with my own.

Country, Pop, Rock – I knew most of the top songs from listening to various radio stations. Pretty much the same story, just with different lyrics and notes. Perfect love, dying love, broken hearts, lust, greed – the themes are all the same. Even with the Christian songs; it’s usually the same praise and worship theme.

Don’t misinterpret this, I love praise and worship music, but this one particular song stuck out tonight. This wasn’t a song I had heard before and it seemed only fitting that I hear it for the first time this evening. You see, I am literally on the eve of my 30th birthday – only one more week to go and that has been, until now, a dreaded date not a celebration.

I had so many aspirations and dreams for where I would be in my life before I turned 30. I would celebrate my birthday in my own home, with my perfect family of three children and my husband and I would both have successful careers and a nice comfortable savings to boot… this dream can’t be too much different than most women in their early 20s. After all, we are living in an age where we can have it all.

Obviously you have found our blog because you know us personally, but in case you don’t, the only thing I have out of my decade long dream is a wonderful husband and a marriage filled with an amazing love I can only compare to a sappy chick flick about a farm boy, courtisan or some other mythically melded super couple. As far as everything else, we find ourselves wanting. Six years into our marriage and after countless doctors telling us we would never be able to have children, we had a beautiful, miracle son. The only problem was that he was born into God’s kingdom before he ever entered the kingdom of this prince and princess. Add some debt and an empty savings account, and you have what obviously adds up to a broken dream.

I try so hard to focus on our blessings and what we have learned through all of our trials – that God is in control and that He has never left our side. But tonight, sitting alone waiting for my prince to come home, I needed a reminder. I didn’t even have to ask; He spoke to me in the form of a song – Casting Crowns, “Praise You In This Storm.”

I was sure by now, God, that You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away, stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen and it's still raining
And as the thunder rolls, I barely hear You whisper through the rain, "I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls, I raise my hands and praise
The God who gives and takes away.

And I'll praise you in this storm, and I will lift my hands
For You are who You are, no matter where I am
And every tear I've cried You hold in your hand
You never left my side and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm.

I remember when I stumbled in the wind,
You heard my cry to You and raised me up again
My strength is almost gone, how can I carry on if I can't find You
And as the thunder rolls, I barely hear You whisper through the rain, "I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls, I raise my hands and praise
The God who gives and takes away

I lift my eyes onto the hills, where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes onto the hill, where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

This is not a new song; it’s actually several years old. Is it a coincidence that I hadn’t heard it before tonight? Let me first start out by saying that I don’t believe in coincidences – God saved this moment for my life today.

I am rich in so many ways I never imagined possible. I have an amazing husband and marriage, many of our friends are struggling in their relationships, or worse yet, have already been divorced once. Not having our own living child has allowed us the time to take in and minister to many of God’s children – amazing children that I may have never met had we had our own by now.

I have an awesome job and career – a career path that I would have never chosen on my own, but one that found me anyway. A coincidence? Well, you know how I feel about those.

I think as humans, we lose focus and get wrapped up in things that are meaningless to the spirit. My mother-in-law’s favorite saying is “I am not a human being having a spiritual experience, but rather a spiritual being having a human experience.” Imagine if we lived our lives like that and focused on what truly mattered.

So, in some way, my upcoming birthday could be a time to focus on “the small stuff” – you know, those societal phrases and clichés we’ve reserved for midlife crisis, menopause, and AARP. But I think there is more to it than that. Like the song says, “praise you in this storm” means much more than acknowledging and accepting where you are in your life right now. Anyone can do that. The true test of faith is being able to throw your hands up in the air in the middle of the thunder clouds and cry out “thank you.”

One of my favorite songs is sung by Garth Brooks where he talks about taking his wife to his old high school for a football game and while they are there, they run into his high school sweetheart. He goes on to sing about how many times in high school he prayed to God that one day he and his former sweetheart would marry. He realizes during the night that this unanswered prayer was one of the best gifts God had ever given him and sings, “sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.”

So maybe my life at 30 is not at all what I wanted, and I should learn to accept what I have already been given. But, I believe God is asking more of me tonight and I’m ready to give it to him. Happy Birthday Sarah!!! Happy Birthday! But more importantly, praise God for my birthday! Praise God for all of my blessings and storms! Welcome 30… WELCOME!!!!

~Sarah E. Rose~

70 Year Old Grapes!!!

Today we visited relatives of Sarah's stepmother, Robbin. The day couldn’t have been more perfect for an afternoon meal in the garden but the most interesting part of our visit had to be taste testing 70 year old grapes. Apparently, our host’s mother would soak various fruits in brandy, including grapes. When his mother passed away, her children split up her delicious treats among themselves, including a large jar of brandy grapes she made in 1938; of which he was kind enough to offer us this rare and almost extinct delicacy. After realizing that our host had also eaten said grapes and survived, we decided it would make a great story to try a 70 year grape. The consistency could only be described as a round ball of delicate tissue paper that melted instantly in your mouth – and the flavor was wonderfully incomparable to anything we had ever eaten before. So there’s our fun story for the day and we lived to tell about, at least so far anyway!