Mud puddles

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain."

This is pretty much my favorite quote. Because it is so, so true.

But what about when the rain is gone? The initial trial is past, the hard decision has been made, and your left in confusion as to what's next. It's stopped storming, but what's left behind isn't exactly a beautiful rainbow. Sometimes it can be, but this time it's not. Instead a murky, sloppy mud puddle is whats left. And you seem to be standing right in the middle of it.

What now? How can you possibly find beauty in mud? Good question, and I'm asking that myself.

The rain has been good. You'd admit that. Hard, yes, but oh so good. You saw a part of God that you'd never realized was there. You have gazed on His mercy and grace. He has shown Himself true to every promise. But now your life is in transition. Since the rain has stopped it's easy to look around at yourself, your situation and view it as one big puddle. At least it's easy for me...

But that's just it. During the storm we learned to lift our face to Jesus for everything. Who says that has to stop? Just because life is getting easier, in a sense, doesn't mean that we forget everything we learned and revert back to the old ways. No it's time where we start to obey.

It's time to keep our focus on God. It's where we start to apply what we learned. What if I used it as an opportunity to show love? To impact another life. To get outside of myself.

Life doesn't turn happy all at once. It may remain cloudy. But if we remain in Him we will see the sunshine behind the clouds. And we'll play in the puddles because they are the result of a refreshing rain and proof that God was at work. And the murkiness won't get us down, because it's evidence that God is cleansing our life of all the "mud".

And as we meditate on our Saviors face we won't see the puddles as a problem, but we'll pray for rain so God can continue to purify us and make the puddles a clear reflection of Him in our lives.

So keep dancing in the rain, and when it's gone, play in the puddles...

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 1 John 4:1

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers...Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.." 1 John 3:16