No one in his right mind wants to be in the middle of a storm - tossed and blown by the wind and drenched in rainwater.
Just like no one in his right mind wishes to be in the thick of a problematic situation or in a manner of speaking, have an emotional storm.
Yet, what happens when a storm is brewing? Almost always people go home and stay indoors.
There's nothing else you can do but stay home.
And don't you just love it? You can sleep all day or catch up with a personal special project which you could not find time for.
Sometimes this is the only time available for us to clean up our desk or the closet.
In other words, we do not act as if we have to go out there and face the storm head on.
It is pretty much the same case with our problems in life, the other type of storm that occasionally hits us.
It is not a physical weather disturbance.
It is the inner struggle that changes not only the climate of the soul but the disposition of the person affected.
The wise thing to do is also to get inside or explore the area within.
Be with the emotion that we are grappling with.
It is time to soul search or introspect.
It is time to ask ourselves not so much what the solution is to this problem or that.
It is actually time to take stock of ourselves and stay with the pervading emotion.
Once we pinpoint the feeling that is strongest or allow one to surface, it is easier to face the issue.
The emotion will no longer have the properties of a tornado that will create such havoc and destruction.
By being with the emotion, we will be in a better position to handle it.
After owning the emotion, then we can even process it.
The truth is for as long as we cannot identify the devil, there is no way we can cast it out.
As far as the problems and the emotional storms of our lives, it is no use fighting off every emotion of anger or hurt.
All it takes is a look into ourselves and those emotions that can wreak havoc.
Stay with it for a while.
Let us try talking to ourselves and asking ourselves questions that will help us focus.
We must be quiet.
We must reach the center where God is.
It is called prayer.
It is an encounter with God.
It is here where we can lay all our burdens before the Lord who will relieve us and give us rest.
Probably, it is even in the quiet center where we will gather the strength to keep swimming against the tide if necessary and find out just how to go about tackling the problem at hand.
The storms usually do not linger for long.
The sun does appear.