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Have you ever stopped and observed a storm? Storms are majestic and inspiring while also terrifying and destructive. They carry such power within them, which is humbling. They are beautiful, wild mysteries full of both wonder and catastrophe. We’re trying to flee from them most of the time, so we don’t see the beauty. We fear the power they have, but what if the power that makes a storm also lives within us?

Driving through a tornado.

A few years back, I purchased a new-to-me car, and while we were driving home, we encountered a storm. But not just any storm, we found ourselves driving through tornado weather. We didn’t see a funnel but did find out later that we were going right through where it was.

So I’m driving in my new to me car with wild wind and sideways pounding rain. The entire sky turned an awful shade of green that felt otherworldly. I haven’t ever driven through a tornado that I can recall, and I can’t remember ever being stuck in a tornado. So I desired to get somewhere safe, but I was in a car and an area that I didn’t know, and I felt trapped. I was a little scared, a little bit nervous, and unsure.

At the same time, watching this storm swirl all around us was wild. An electric line had come down at one point, and the only option was to keep driving. (I didn’t have to go over the live wire, but I did have to drive under it.)

Finally, we found a building in the middle of a field with a drive-through carport, so we pulled in and waited. We watched the storm unfold around us, and I experienced many feelings all at once – safe, vulnerable, nervous. I wanted to outrun the storm, but I knew it wasn’t possible. I could barely see out the windshield, and finding a random overhang attached to a random building in a random field was challenging enough.

All of this makes me think about the storms we experience internally and the power that creates them.

Tne devastating power of storms

There is no way around the fact that storms, although beautiful, are completely devasting and destructive. There is nothing beautiful about destruction. However, if you could take a tornado or a monsoon and you could put it in a little snow globe to watch, you would see the storm contains so much power. (It’s how a storm produces such devasting results.)

That same power that causes storms in our material world also creates the storms we face internally – emotionally, mentally, physically, interpersonally. In the same way, they can be destructive. Storms can level an entire area until you didn’t know it ever existed. It’s gone. Storms completely derail people’s lives, and we lose so many valuable, wonderful humans because of them.

We are taught to seek safety during storms. Hide in shelters. Flee the area. Wait it out. We apply this same logic to internal storms as well.

Internal storms come with all of their power and wipe something clean too. So when a storm is coming, we hide. We seek shelter. We find safety. We try to protect ourselves from the coming destruction, but hiding doesn’t stop it. After the destruction, we still have to rebuild.

Stand face to face with your storms.

What if instead of hiding from your internal storms, you stood face to face with them? I believe it’s possible because the same power that lives within these storms also lives within you. Your power matches the power of the storm. You no longer have to be afraid of storms when you understand this.

Instead, you can acknowledge the storm and even accept that it may level out many things in your life, but you don’t have to run from it or hide. Instead, you can stand face to face with it, knowing that the same power that caused the storm can be used to rebuild after it passes.

It doesn’t mean that storms won’t come or that you can outpower them. But, you can confidently know that the storm may destroy everything around you, but you will survive and then use that same power to rebuild.

Although storms feel destructive, they’re reformative. Although they feel like the end, they’re starting something new. Even big, devastating storms can teach us lessons.

The power that exists in storms, exists in you.

When you know you’re a match for the storms that come (and they will), you no longer have to fear them. We live in a world that is both wonderful and wounded. The storms of life can cause a lot of mental, physical, and emotional damage, but you can match that power in rebuilding what remains.

Instead of hiding, you can observe. Instead of fleeing, you can stand. Instead of seeking safety, you can watch and wait for it to pass.

When the storm passes, which it will, you’re going to tap into that same power that brought the destruction, and you’re going to rebuild. You’re going to create something new and wonderful and powerful in your life. But we can’t do this unless we know the power exists within us.

Without the power, you become the victim.

If we don’t understand the power within us is equal to the power of storms, we will tap into a victim mentality. We engage with the energy of victimhood, which causes us to think thoughts like, “the storm happened to me and ruined me. What am I supposed to do?”

Instead of this victim response, you can realize you’re not powerless – you’re responsible. You can take on the responsibility as a privilege, not a burden. No matter what storm comes, you can face it and rebuild after it.

The storms of your life are something to marvel at, not something to fear. We have to remember that sometimes a storm comes because we need to rebuild. They come because something in our life needs a drastic transformation that we can’t seem to create. A storm comes to level things out and give us something new to work with.

Remember, storms in our material world are destructive and devastating, and we need to seek shelter. The point is to remember you have that same power within. You are a match for your internal storms.