“Drive through the storm.”

That’s what my Dad always told us.  He spent much of his time in his car traveling to and from ministry opportunities.  So when he gave us driving advice, we listened.

He taught us that when you’re in your car and in a storm, just keep driving.  He told us that if we stopped, the storm might just hang out over us.  If we kept going, eventually we’d drive out of it.

I had to put that into practice last night.  I drove right into a storm on the way home from Bible study.  A bad one – the kind that makes you turn off the radio so you can concentrate on staying on the road.  A white-knuckles on the steering wheel kind of storm.  Thunder, lightning, and walls of water coming across the highway.

All I wanted to do was get home.  So I did what Dad taught me to do. I kept on driving.

Dad’s driving advice is good for life, too.

There are going to be storms.  Sometimes they’re bad ones.  Sometimes all we want to do is pull off the road and give up. Or turn around. But what we need to do is drive through them. Eventually, the storm will pass.

I know that if Dad knew about the storms in my life and in the lives of people I care about, he’d tell us to keep driving.  He’d tell us that God is with us in the storms and that He will bring us through them and that we’ll be better off on the other side of them for having been brave enough to drive on.

So I’ll grip that steering wheel, turn off the distractions and keep going in spite of what is going on around me.

Drive through the storms, my friend.  There’s clear sky up ahead.

We went through fire and through water; but You brought us out to rich fulfillment. Psalm 66:12

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.  Isaiah 43:2

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.    Psalm 91:5

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. 2 Timothy 3:14