I love running in the rain and being in thunderstorms. There’s something beautiful about being in the midst of a power that is absolutely unbridled and out of your control. Hearing to the thunder and seeing the lightning gives this somewhat frightening but absolutely thrilling tingle, “what kind of strength could make a noise like that?” It is humbling and scintillating to so starkly realize that there is something that is far greater than us, and we can experience it without being destroyed.
Elihu says it best as he conveys the majesty of the Almighty:
At this my heart pounds
and leaps from its place.
Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice,
to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven
and sends it to the ends of the earth.
After that comes the sound of his roar;
he thunders with his majestic voice.
When his voice resounds,
he holds nothing back.
God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.
He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’
and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’
So that all men he has made may know his work,
he stops every man from his labor.
The storm is unstoppable, uncontrollable; it cannot be mitigated, it absolutely engulfs. Such is the all consuming, all encompassing power of God, so much so that storms are like drizzle to him. His whisper makes the thunder clap, and the tip of his finger obliterates as the lightning.
To stand in the midst of the storm is to be at the center of the Almighty’s power.
And so I cried to God, “Will you reject us forever? Will you not send your power and your signs so that this people and this place will not deny you? Can you not bring the sheer power of ‘I am’ to show us who life is?”
He answered: “Be patient, then, David, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”
And then he spoke “Your trial is the storm you stand in, and you will soon hear my thunder. There will be no denial when I speak that I have spoken, no question when I touch you that I have been present.”
The rush of the rainstorm is but a glimmer of the force of El Shaddai. When the Lord comes, I want to make sure I’m outside right in the midst of him.
And I will know that I am alive because he is alive.