I was driving down the highway today, singing Summer Rain by Carl Thomas at the top of my lungs.

I've heard that song a thousand times.

But today, I heard it differently.

When he kept repeating that he didn't mind if it rained forever, I immediately thought about how much my relationship with life's "storms" has changed.

I used to dread them.

Now, I welcome them.

Then another lyric hit me about the rain putting him to sleep and waking him up again.

It made me think about how God often lets an old version of us fall away so He can awaken the person He created us to become.

Maybe that's what storms are for.

Not to destroy us...

But to wake us up to what He's been trying to teach us all along.

There is no testimony without the test.

And I've learned that some of God's greatest blessings are waiting on the other side of the storm.