Do you ever feel like you struggle with the same few things in your life? A physical problem or addiction? A relationship that is plagued by the same troubles over and over again? Do you read and pray and study and try new things to fix these problems, but they seem to come back?
Gee, it sounds like I am going to sell you something. But no, I do not have a magic bullet to make your problems go away. I can just offer a little perspective I found in my own life. I noticed that I have a few things that creep up over and over again. Simple things like the struggle to keep my house clean. And more complex things like managing relationships to be positive and loving.
I tend to be a bit dramatic and assume that they way things are right now is the way things will always be. That if I am stuck in a gloomy place, then I will be here forever. That if my kitchen counter is covered in mail, it will never be clean again. But I did notice that I have bright sun-shiny days. And that I did actually see the bottom of the mail stack! Days are different! I noticed that within my struggles, I have both kinds of day. They are never really “fixed,” but things are not bad all the time either. I noticed that I have cycles in my life that swing up and down.
And one day it hit me: I will have both kinds of days. Over and over again. I will probably never reach nirvana in this life when it comes to my personal struggles. But I also realized that the tough days will not last forever. And instead of thinking that a storm is always brewing off the horizon, I chose to focus on the calm coming after the storm ends.
I noticed this with my songwriting. Some days the words flow and a melody seems to magically jump from my mind to the piano keys. It is truly magic and a wonderful amazing process. On those days, I feel like I can conquer the world. And then other days, the words are just stuck. Nothing comes easily and I start to doubt if I will ever write a song again.
Well, when I recognized the cycle, it gave me hope. I had hope that the good days would return and I didn’t stress so much. That is what this song means to me. We all go through storms, but we can be calm and have hope. When we are striving to do what is right, then God blesses us and we can rely on His hope that calm days will come. I trust that, I really do.
Here is a music video for “Storm before the Calm.” Please share this if this resonates with you. If you scroll down you can see some behind the scenes pictures too. I shot this video when I was about 4 months pregnant, and no one knew! Have a great day!
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