It is storming here in the part of Alabama that I live.  Rain is coming down in sheets, lightening strikes all around and thunder booms.  Perfect day for indoor projects.  Only my plans were to drive an hour into the” city” to have lunch with my old boss.

I made the drive hundreds of times when I was able to work, in worse weather than this, because I was obligated.  It wasn’t a choice not to go if I wanted to prove my handicap didn’t stop me from working.  Today I have the option to say, “Let’s do this another day”!

I am choosing to not get soaked getting in and out of my car.  I am choosing not to have my wheelchair get soaked.  I am choosing not to have my niece who would help me get soaked.  I am also choosing to continue my hermit like conditions a little longer. 

Strange in that these are not the same choices I would have made a year ago.  When who I was and my value as a person was so wrapped up in what I did for a living.   So much so that being forced into disability retirement sent me reeling into major depression.

Life is this way.  We don’t get to choose the weather, the circumstances, and the conditions life gives us.  We do get to choose how we respond.  I took losing my job hard.  I forgot there were choices I could still make.  One of those was to cling more tightly to Jesus.  He had mercy upon me though and He held me when I forgot to hold onto Him.  Gradually I learned,  all over again, a wiser way to make choices.

Today I am choosing to cling and choose more wisely the actions I take.  It’s still storming outside, and inside my heart as well, but my eyes are on the Light that is the same arms that are holding me in the storm.

How are you riding out your life storms?

-Faye