Twist and Shout

I dream in tornadoes.

They rarely scare me, although sometimes I'll wake in a cold sweat. But they sure enlighten me to whats going on inside my head. Now I'm no psychologist, but I understand where these dreams come from.

I've experienced them over the course of more than a decade:

• when a conflict comes up with a friend
• when the school year is about to start
• when I'm doing something that makes me feel terribly vulnerable or unfamiliar like planning a big party or scrapbooking retreat - especially the first time.

They aren't always exactly alike, but aside from who's involved, my family, friends, or strangers, they run pretty much the same way.

I'm usually in a familiar home, without a safe place, no basement or interior room or closet. I see the storm coming from a long way off. I generally take cover under heavy furniture or in a crawlspace under the house. I wake up before the tornado hits.

Always the same. Always brought on by the real life stress I'm experiencing. Always a result of some unknown something looming in the not-so-distant future of my life.

In fact, if I were to define UNKNOWN, a tornado would be part of the picture. Twisters can never be fully forecasted and even when they are, they can skip around the landscape, pulling up trees like blades of grass, but leaving the flowers in between the trees alone.

I'll never forget seeing the destruction of a December tornado several years ago. The whole wall of an apartment building was torn off. The kitchen in the upstairs apartment lay fully exposed: table, chairs, cupboard. And on a shelf above the cupboard were 4 china plates with their cups hang below them on hooks. The storm could take off the whole facing wall, but left the plates on the shelf! Is that crazy or what?

My family is going through that type of unknown stress right now. Thankfully I'm not dreaming in tornadoes, but as each day passes, the tension grows a bit tighter. But God brought a verse to me as I sat down to write this. (I'm not just saying that. I had just about decided to skip my Weekend-spiration this week because nothing was resonating.)

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" Matthew 7:9-11

I love this verse. It reminds me of the etiquette lessons I'd put my kids through at ages two and three.
     *Reaching out hand* "Cuckkeee."
     *Withholding prize* "Say please."
     "Peeeeeze."

The Father teaches us to rely on Him by encouraging us to ask Him for the things we need. He knows it before we ever utter a sound, but He craves interaction with His babies and wants us to fully trust in Him.

I posted the words to a song a couple of weeks ago and they apply here again. I think the song was by Twila Paris. (Love her music and her message!)

I will trust You, Lord, when I don't know why.
I will trust You, Lord, 'til the day I die.
I will trust You, Lord, when I'm blind with pain.
You were God before and You'll never change.
You can see my heart. You can read my mind,
And You've got to know I would rather die
Than to lose my faith in the One I love.
I will trust You, Lord.

 So I'm unashamedly asking my Father for the needs I have. He knows them and already has a plan on the horizon. And I bet it doesn't look anything like a tornado!

What are some things you need to trust the Father about? You don't have to get specific if you don't want to, but if you'll comment that you have something, I'll lift it up, too. Etierh