When it Rains it Pours

Despite the literal truth of this statement flooding my community as you read this, I can’t help but feel the full torrential force of life’s storms. When the wind is raging and the rain won’t relent, there are times when we feel hopelessly swept away in the flood of our trials.

Grief, finances, failures, illness, relationships.

Dreams.

All the pieces, big and small, that make up a life.

Sometimes it feels like the things we fight most fervently for are the first things ripped from our grasp while we flounder in the ever swelling problems threating to dishearten and drown.

Whether it’s weariness or resignation to that inevitable ebb and flow of life’s ups and downs, the crushing weight of those raining problems can leave us hesitant to hope for the sunrise. The rainbow. The promise of deliverance. Hesitant, or maybe desperate, to cling to that small, sometimes rapidly fraying, thread of faith holding us together.

Ever been right there? In desperate need of a lifeline?

Right there, in that perfectly catastrophic storm, the truth you need the most can fall on deaf ears. Those spoon fed assurances are easier to swallow when you aren’t up to your neck in the deep end, battle weary and gasping for breath. When that storm front is bearing down. When the dark cloud blinds you to the light breaking just out of reach. 

Assurances like…

“God won’t give you more than you can handle.”

“His yoke is easy.”

“Cast your cares on Him.”

“The Lord is my strength.”

“This, too, shall pass.”

“He has not given you a spirit of fear.”

“What the devil meant for evil, God can turn around for good.”

All powerful truths. And yet, all, at times, feel as cliché as the title of this post.

Ever fought against a current? Not quite as easy as it looks, is it? And in that same way, activating our faith, walking the walk, surrendering control, just being still can feel about as difficult as walking on water.

But you know… how we feel doesn’t change what is.

Your doubts, your weaknesses and struggles don’t change the fact that God’s got it. That he will not leave you. That no matter how alone you feel in your storm, he can and will intervene to calm the raging sea and keep you from going under.

Your feelings in your overwhelming moment of despair are sorely unmatched for the truth of who has you, your current pain, and your future triumph in His hands. In the middle of that storm, the water is high, your fear is powerful, your eyes can’t see what’s ahead. They are stuck, right there with you, on the bleak, blinding chaos.

Don’t panic. You’re going to bungle it at times. You will take on water. You will, without a doubt, get wet. 

And that’s okay. Sometimes we need to fall in to wash some stuff off. To remember we are not in control. That, though He didn’t cause your storm, He can still command the waves.

Thank God.

Rest and know. The flood will not take you because, whether you grasp it or not, you have the ultimate life raft at your disposal. What you feel does not have to define who you are.

An heir. A testimony. A champion.

And held.

Just keep swimming toward help … He’s closer than you think.

<3 Amy

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Amy Leigh Simpson writes romantic mysteries with honesty and humor, sweetness and spice, and gritty reality covered by grace. When she’s not stealing moments at naptime to squeeze out a few more adventures in storyland, she’s chasing around two tow-headed miscreants (Ahem)—boys, playing dress up with one sweet princess baby, and being the very blessed wife to the coolest, most swoon-worthy man alive. Amy is a Midwestern-girl, a singer, blogger, runner, coffee-addict, and foodie. Her Sports Medicine degree is wasted patching up daily boo boo’s, but whatever is left usually finds its way onto the page with fluttering hearts, blood and guts, and scars that lead to happily ever after.

Check out her NEW romantic mystery novel FROM WINTER'S ASHES! Available NOW!

From The Valley, The Writer Speaks

Last week, I had the chance to sit in a room full of women and listen to the best selling author, Glennon Doyle Melton of Momastery share a bit of her testimony, and a whole lot of wisdom.  Coming from a past of addiction and heartache, she not only found God, but His greater purpose for her--to write. Glennon doesn't just speak as a writer, she speaks (and writes) as a "valley" girl...a woman who has found her calling to write in the very bottom of one of life's valley.

freedigitalphotos.net by Boaz Yiftach

Glennon said two things that resonated most with me (and if you've talked with me these past few days...I have probably told you this because it's something I am constantly processing!):

First thing, is when she spoke of walking in a valley, she said: "Life-changing work begins at the broken heart."

And second-- Glennon realized she needed "to be still--to sit in the pain (of life)" and let it change her.

 The two above points meet me on a personal level,  reaching to the very core of me, my very valley-treading soul that sits in the pit and waits to let the pain change me.

BUT.... what God calls me to do, as I sit--in the waiting for change-- is to WRITE.

freedigitalphotos.net by anankkml

In that writing, I am changed. And the pain pours out, and my heart is healed...BY my calling, IN the valley. 

The writing does not save me from the valley, but it changes me, and it explores the pain to reveal God's healing. And even in a fiction plot, and the made-up characters, His Truth begins to minister to the wound of my very real heart, and  life-changing work begins.

So...I would like to reiterate that, especially for me, "life-changing work begins at the broken heart". And, to sit in the pain, and "be still", and allow the pain to change me, perhaps it's not just a time for waiting, but for writing?

Have you poured your heart out on paper and found healing through it?

(To understand more of Glennon's story, click here:  http://momastery.com/blog/about-glennon/ )

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Angie Dicken is a full-time mom and lives in the Midwest with her Texas Aggie sweetheart. An ACFW member since 2010, she has written five Historical Romance novels, has a Historical underway, and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of The Steve Laube Agency. Angie also spends her time designing one-sheets, selling Jamberry, and drinking good coffee with great friends. Check out her author page at www.facebook.com/dicken.angie and her personal blog at angiedicken.blogspot.com