What's Your Weather Today? - John Ed Mathison

The weather plays a big part in how we live our lives every day. We dress and plan accordingly. We can complain about the weather, but complaining doesn’t change the weather. The weather is what it is. We can’t change the weather, but we can be prepared to cope with it positively!

2017 was the costliest year ever for weather related disasters in the U.S., reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Three huge hurricanes and a couple of wild fires combined caused much discomfort, danger, and a huge cost. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria plus thirteen other weather and climate disasters cost citizens of the U.S over 306 billion dollars!

I learned a new term, “bomb cyclone,” a few of months ago when this unique weather condition hit the Northeastern U.S. It caused wind chills as low as 100 degrees below zero in New Hampshire – that’s cold! On the same day in Australia, they had the most catastrophic heat wave in eighty years when temperatures hit 117 degrees Fahrenheit – that’s hot! A six mile stretch of highway in Victoria melted into soft sticky asphalt. Same day – different weather.

The stories that have come out of 2017 show a lot of folks who complained constantly and had a terrible year – while others decided to let God help them make their lives meaningful during these tragedies. I’ve told many of these stories in the one minute devotional I do every morning on several radio stations and on Facebook.

I was attending a social function on a recent Saturday night. The person had invited about 35 friends to a cookout. He gathered everybody together on his front porch when it was time to eat. He commented that he appreciated everyone being there and then revealed that it was actually his birthday. He said he invited everybody because they were friends, but he had especially invited me because he needed someone to say the prayer. (I looked around, and I could understand that.) He then said that the main reason he invited me was to be in charge of the weather. I quickly reminded him, “I’m in sales, not management.”

There’s truth in that statement. We need to stay out of management. We can’t control things. We can’t manage the universe – God is in charge of that. God is in charge of everything. Our greatest pleasure in life comes when we accept God’s ownership of everything, and then find our place where we fit in to make our lives count in his universe.

Everything we face today – including the weather, God is in charge of it. Our task is to get out of the management business and be more effective in the sales responsibility. We are to let our light shine – to be the salt of the earth – to be the light of the world. (Read Matthew 5:13-16.) We are to share the Good News of God’s love for every person.

I read somewhere that God is in charge of the flowers and trees – I am in charge of the seeds and weeds. That’s a powerful truth. When we learn the basic responsibilities of what God does and what we are to do, life begins to take a new dimension. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Everyday I want to look for an opportunity to pull up a weed and to plant a flower where it might grow.”

The weather is not your enemy – it’s God’s gift to you to be used in a productive way. I once heard someone say:

“Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot –

We’ll weather the weather whatever the weather

Whether we like it or not.”