Greetings All,
As many of you know from having joined me or others from having driven by and seen me, perhaps my most favorite pastime these days is porch sitting. If the temperature is right you can find me late at night or early morning kicked back on my front porch with my guitar, or the Bible and my quiet time materials, or my children, or Christa, or friends. The porch is the place where you can just be, there is no doing allowed on the porch; no projects or tasks or "to do" lists. It is the place of being; being alone when I need that time to myself, being with God, being with others. With the exceptions of the times I need to have those "dad talks" with the kids, it is a place of great peace and comfort. If you don't have a porch, you need one!
Yesterday morning, I had finished treadmilling and was ready to sit down for quiet time and decided to move out to the porch because the temperature was just perfect. It was still early, probably sevenish, and there was a slight breeze blowing. As I sat there journaling and reading the wind began to pick up and the sky began to darken. As I looked up into the sky the clouds were getting dark and moving fast. A storm was coming and you could feel it in the air. While I hate being caught out in the rain, I love that feeling before a big storm. The air is sort of charged with energy and you skin just kind of tingles. Well my skin started to tingle and then the lightning began to flash and the thunder began to crash and suddenly the bottom fell out of the sky. It was pouring so hard my gutters couldn't keep up and they were overflowing right in front of the house. The lightning flashed, the thunder rolled, the rain poured and I..............................sat in my chair and kept reading.
Yes, the atmosphere around me was filled with storm. Wind, rain, lightning and thunder, but up underneath my porch I was protected and safe. I was far enough back that the water was reaching me when the wind blew. I had a cover over my head so I didn't need to worry about lightning and I was listening to Diana Krall on my Mp3 player so the thunder really wasn't a factor. I kept enjoying my time with the Lord and enjoying the storm raging around me. I couldn't help but think while I was sitting amidst that storm on my porch focused on God; and the thought I kept having was that God is kind of like a porch in our lives.
The porch is the place you can retreat to during a storm to be out of the rain and wind, but it is still open to the elements. The closer you get to the edge the more chance there is of the elements affecting you and the more the storm rages the more they push in towards the back of the porch. Eventually the wind started blowing hard enough yesterday that I had to retreat inside because my books were getting wet. Isn't God the same way, we can retreat into Him when the storms begin to rage and He will offer shelter from those storms of life. He will keep the rain off our head and block the wind from certain directions, but He will never fully protect us from all of the elements because it is in the storms of life that we learn and grow. He also leaves the sides wide open so we can exercise our free will anytime we want and jump back out to play in the storm. Just as the porch is a place of peace and comfort amidst the storms of the world, God is a place of peace and comfort amidst the storms of life.
The next time the rain, wind and lightning kick up grab your Bible and head out to the porch and spend some time with the creator of that storm. He is not only the perfect porch amidst the storms of life He is more than a porch sitting companion to spend time with as you enjoy the storm raging around your little porch oasis.
Your brother in Christ,
Faron
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Faron,
ReplyDeleteI believe that sitting on my porch and looking out over the yard, enjoying the view of beautiful things that God has provided such as the flowers, trees, birds and even the grass, which sometimes needs to be mowed, waving at the neighbors and speaking to them as they come home or leave to go somewhere,then just sitting and enjoying the quite time and thinking and thinking is one of my best times of each day. I will now give God thanks for the time he has provided me and my family, every time I sit on the porch.
Thanks for this post.
Love,
Dad
I was reminiscing with a lady yesturday about porch sitting and how it used to be. She still sits out on her porch every night in the same neighborhood as she has for the past 60 years. The sad thing she noticed is around 8 o'clock there is no one left. She may see an occasional car pass by and someone one will wave but there is no one strolling on the sidewalk or sitting on their porch. Except for the normal sounds of urban life its silent. I asked her what her thoughts were as to why things have changed and she offered a few interesting insights. First she said that most of her friends go indoors to catch their favorite TV shows, prime time starts around 8 o'clock. Secondly, years ago air conditioning was so prevalent and people would sit out in the cool of the evening because the house was still hot. Now we can't get along without it. We go inside to cool off. I guess we need a major power outage for things to change or at least wake us up to how isolated and self dependent we have become.
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