Thursday, August 05, 2010

Praying with Lightning

A dark flashing northeastern sky warned me there were thunderstorms ready to greet me as I made my way to work this morning. So, I settled into the cockpit of my Ford Escape and tuned my radio to KLOVE, the Christian music station. As I turned onto I-55 north, the darkness in the northeast was interrupted more and more frequently with bursts of light. Trying to find the consolation of the impending rain, I smiled to myself as I thought how God was going to wash the bugs off of my windshield and gift me with a free car wash. I was about to realize and be gifted with yet more insight from our loving God.
As I found myself making the right turn to head east toward Covington, there was still no rain yet in front of me the light strobes had been replaced with crooked vertical lines of lightning. Lightning fascinates me. There is so much energy in such skinny lines, and this energy is focused to singular points on the ground yet if these bolts of energy strike in strategic places, there can be a cascade effect of electrical outage or even ignite fires.
As I prayed with the lightning that God gifted me with this morning and as I applied it to my life circumstances and current local and global events, I was given my lesson for today.
Positive and negative charges within mixing air of a thunderstorm cause lightning. It is amazing to think that when two huge differences clashing together-- the resulting energy of that clash is lightning. And the resulting heat from lightning causes explosions of thunder.
The amazing revelation in all of that this morning was in order for that to happen, there has to be a relationship. There has to be a mixing of the hot and cold air masses. There has to be a coming together of the positive and negative charges in order for the amazing lightning to be born announced by the labor wails of thunder. Lightning cannot happen if both components are not present and reacting with each other. They have to be present and interacting.
If our relationships are to be healthy enough to create lightning, then there must me a mutuality of giving and receiving….there must be a mutuality of sharing…..there must be a mutuality of care. And out of all of that mutuality is born a love so great that it speaks thunder into our community and world.
And most importantly, where there is this mutuality of relationship, God is present strengthening, supporting and loving all of us.
Ya’ll have a good day. Create lightning. Do stuff to develop and strengthen your relationships with family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. Let the thunder roll.

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