We had a hailstorm in July of 2009. Watching from our kitchen window as baseball sized hailstones slammed violently into our Suburban’s windshield was frightening, to say the least. It makes you wonder how those hailstones are formed. It goes something like this…Strong winds move a drop of water up, up, up through the heights of a giant storm cloud. As the drop is blown up into the cold heights of the atmosphere, more moisture adheres causing the drop to grow in size. The growing drop eventually gets high enough into the cold atmosphere that it freezes. The frozen ball then falls back down through the cloud and more moisture is added until it is caught and brought up again by another current. More moisture is added on the updraft, and the stone continues to grow and freeze. This cycle continues as long as the winds in the storm cloud are turbulent enough to keep lifting and growing the hailstone. Thus, the stronger the winds in the storm cloud, the more times the hailstone is cycled up and down. The more cycles the hailstone endures, the more it grows until it gets SO BIG that it falls violently to the earth.
The moral of the story is that if the raindrop was released by the storm cloud right away, rather than being cycled up and down in violent turbulence, the moisture that precipitated to the earth would come as a blessing, rather than as a curse.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I worry about people and things like one of those hail clouds. It starts with something on my mind that is a little disturbing. Rather than taking care of the minor disturbance – perhaps with prayer, a casual conversation, or just a little extra effort – I dwell on that problem. Sometimes this goes on for days or even weeks. Every time I start to let the problem out, I get anxious and bring it back in again, and again, and again. The problem invariably grows, and grows, and grows. When I finally let the problem go, I address the issue with a burst of anger and rage, much like one of those hailstones slamming into our Suburban’s windshield.
Do you have a problem with someone or something? Deal with it peacefully today. Don’t let it grow in the storm cloud of your mind until it gets so big that you hurt yourself and someone else.
“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.” Hebrews 12:14-15