We Can’t Control The Forecast For Our Lives

Did you ever want to be a meteorologist?  Someone who predicts the weather? We always laugh about what an easy job it must be because they are always wrong!  I have turned on the radio to listen for a tornado warning because of the raging weather outside, just to hear them give a “sunny all day” forecast! Or when they tell us to expect 2 inches of snow and 4 hours later we are stranded unless we have a 4 wheel drive to plow through the new foot of snow.

We are staying on Tybee Island right now in Georgia and I have found that the forecast changes even more rapidly than at home in Michigan.  The weather channel predicted a 90% chance of rain which wasn’t really exciting, however the bright sunshine outside for several hours negated their predictions. Here on the ocean the weather is extremely unpredictable.

I was just thinking about how we also say things that are also “fibs” just like the volatile weather forecast! I found these famous american fibs in an old Bits & Pieces publication and I wanted to share them.

• The check is in the mail
• I’ll start my diet tomorrow
• We service what we sell
• Give me your number and the doctor will call you right back
• Money cheerfully refunded
• One size fits all
• This offer limited to the first 100 people who call in
• Your luggage isn’t lost, it’s only misplaced
• Leave your resume and we’ll keep it on file
• This hurts me more than it hurts you
• I just need five minutes of your time
• Your table will be ready in a few minutes
• Open wide, it won’t hurt a bit
• Let’s have lunch sometime
• It’s not the money, it’s the principle

Haha I think we have all been guilty of saying these things, sometimes in sincerity and sometimes just to pacify someone. I know the weather forecasts are predicted in sincerity but of course they aren’t God and they have no control over what really transpires.

We also have no control over what will happen in our lives. We will face trials that we would never imagine we could cope with. Great hardships that force us to our knees in desperate prayer. Abraham Lincoln said “I have been driven to my knees many times, upon the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go”.

I could write a really thick book about all the times I have literally fallen to my knees and cried out to God for answers, for strength, for direction.

So many heartaches raising children, health issues, needs in the church, the list is endless. There is a common denominator though. In every single instance, there was a listening ear on the other side of my desperate plea. A God who cared about my slightest problem. There was nothing ever too simple to take to Him in prayer.

I remember one time when our baby goats were being born. It was a very cold winter and we had just lost one to the cold. We brought the other baby goat into the house and it refused to eat. We bottle fed them. I was incredibly sad, as were my children about the goat that had just died. I knew this one would die soon without sustenance. I ran upstairs to my bedroom and knelt in prayer.  I asked the Lord to help me save the goat. I heard Him whisper to me to use a syringe, not the bottle. I raced downstairs and put the warm milk in a syringe. We took turns squirting that syringe into its mouth until several hours later it drank a bottle. It was a simple solution and one I will never forget. We named that goat Clover and she became a family favorite.

The forecast for our lives will be filled with the goodness of God but it will include stormy weather. Grab that powerful umbrella He has provided to shield us from the storms.