Don't tell God

"Don't tell God how big the storm is. Tell the storm how big God is."


But where's the explanation? How do we break it down? How do we sink our teeth into this and taste the raw challenge?
We read this quote and react with a wide range of thoughts and emotions. Some dismiss it as a Hallmark card meant to encourage someone who actually believes in that stuff. Some cling to it as though it were a knot at the end of their rope. Some will experience a renewed faith in God's awesome power to intervene. Some who do believe in that sort of thing will feel discouraged that they have yet to see that happen in their life.
If you've got some really tough things going on in your life, things that are out of your control, there are times when little encourages you beyond the words of people who themselves aren't struggling through things, and the vague promises that 1) God is in control, and (2) everything happens for a reason. What hollow comfort that is for someone whose world has been turned upside down. Does the reason point to our own shortcomings - our own failings and diminishing faith? It's easy to process it that way.
The ebb and flow of my own faith in God's power and willingness to heal invariably leads to a strange limbo, hovering between peace and hopelessness. Where did my faith go? It hardly resembles its past form. My response to this quote is not what it would have been at another point in time.