Good God in Bad Weather

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, August 13th, 2023:
​Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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1 Kings
19.9, 11-13

When Elijah reached Horeb, the mountain of God, he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

It has not been a great season to live in Nova Scotia. Wildfires destroying countless homes. Two months of seemingly endless rain and bracing heat. All of this capped off with a torrential, record-breaking downpour and hours of thundershowers, leaving rivers overflowing, roads washed out, basements flooded, and more. It feels like we’ve been moving from crisis to crisis with no time to breathe, no time to listen.

Not listening is always where my confusion starts. I get overwhelmed by all the noise and lights and mess. When the whole world feels like it’s turning upside down, my desire to seek God in that chaos can leave me trying to see God as the maker of the chaos. I can focus on what God is trying to teach me (or punish me for) in the drama of creation. I can see the fire and mistake it for the refiner’s fire (Malachi 3:2). I can see the downpour and mistake it for the cleansing water of baptism (1 Peter 3:21). 

Because if this fire were the refiner’s fire, I could touch it – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – and not be burned (Daniel 3:94). If this were the waters of baptism, we would be saved and reborn in this water (Titus 3:5) and not drown.

I don’t seek the Father’s heart or seek to listen for the sheer silence, as Elijah heard. I instead superimpose my human vision of justice and right over the chaos around me. But God isn’t speaking to me through that God. His voice is waiting for me in all of it, if I would just turn my eyes and ears away from all that would distract me.

In the same way that we shouldn’t seek Him in the clamour of natural disasters, we should be wary of seeking Him in other counterfeit things that play on our feelings. Thrill-seeking behaviour that chases the high and keeps us from acknowledging the need to seek something greater than ourselves. Societal movements that speak worldly truth with so much conviction and play on our emotions, dragging us away from Truth like a riptide. Music that moves our feelings but doesn’t help us to seek God in silence. Everything that excites our feelings while making us incapable of hearing God’s voice.

While God didn’t send the fire and rain, God is still there for us throughout this season. His still, small voice is still there to guide and comfort us. He did not make the storm, but He can calm it (Matthew 8:23-27). He can redeem consuming fire and make it refining fire. He can redeem the engulfing water and make it cleansing water. Our God is a good God, come rain or come shine.

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Stéphanie Potter

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