Have you noticed?

Have you noticed that most of life is just a bit boring?  Days come, days go and we work, we sleep, we do the same things day after day.  To be honest most of life is pretty boring.

Have you noticed that storms only come once in a while? They aren't the norm in any life.  We live rather repetitive boring lives with an occasional storm that seems to overwhelm us for a time, but they don't last.

Have you noticed we hate the boring normal, but we hate the storms even more?  And yet, it's the storms that create the stories of our lives.  Storms are the events of life that make us grow!  

Have you noticed that after you have been through a few storms they don't scare you so much as they did at first?  In the storm there is fear, but it's in the storm that our faith grows as well.  We come through the storm stronger than when we entered it.

Have you noticed that people who haven't suffered many storms in their lives are honestly a little boring, a little dull.  They haven't had to grow, to fear, to trust....all the things that happen to us in storms.

Have you noticed that the normal boring of life doesn't change us much, but the storms always do?  The storm that we feared would destroy us actually has made us stronger!

Have you noticed that God allows storms because he loves us?

^{James 1:2} Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.³ For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. ⁴ So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.