Like Lightning and Thunder

In this week's episode, Dennis Jernigan shares the story behind his song,  “Like Lightning and Thunder” from the recording, Forty Days and Forty Nights - Songs of Contemplation and Intimacy Vol. 1." That mp3 is available at https://www.dennisjernigan.com/store/product.php?c=24&p=2353 The lyrics can be found below.

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You will find the show notes and lyrics below:

Hello and welcome to The Dennis Jernigan Podcast. Here in Oklahoma we have more than our fair share of storms - especially in the springtime. More than our fair share of tornadoes. I know. I know. We live right in the smack dab middle of Tornado Alley so what should we expect?

This week’s song is called Like Lightning and Thunder and the story behind it is probably not one you might expect. I was on a 40 day fast in May and June of 2010 and I was experiencing many major storms of life. Let’s just say that I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed by life. The storms seemed to be raging out of control and I did not know what to do.

I then began to meditate on Psalm 40 along with Isaiah 40 as a means of helping me stay focused on the fast and my need for the Lord to intervene and restore me physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. On may 10, 2010 - day 8 of the fast - I happened to be meditating on Psalm 40 verse 5a which says:

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us [plans for us]. Psalm 40:5a NASB

As I began to meditate on this passage of Scripture - began to just mull it over in my mind - I kept getting stuck on the phrase ‘many are the wonders which you have done’ and for some reason, I was reminded of something I did quite a few times when my children were still at home. During some of those springtime tornado storms I mentioned earlier, I would often load my children into our 15 passenger van and we would go storm chasing. Don’t bother calling child protective services. They are all grown and out of the house now and actively seeking therapy for these episodes.

Seriously, I wanted the children to have a healthy fear of the power of those storms, but I also wanted them to develop a sense of wonder and awe at the beauty and creativity and power of God’s love being demonstrated right before our eyes. With every bolt of lightning, we oohed and aahed about how massive or how beautiful the display was…at how creative God was in the way no two lightning bolts were ever the same…at how some would flare out into dozens of streams streaking across the sky while still others seemed to crash directly into the earth with one incredibly intense impact.

We marveled at the way in which some thunder seemed to all along as if it were bouncing off of the clouds seeming to echo for several seconds while still other claps of thunder would sound as if a bomb had just exploded very near the van. I taught them how to estimate how near the lightning strike actually was by teaching them that if you count five seconds between a lightning strike and the thunder that follows it, that means lightning is just one mile away. I thoroughly enjoyed these storm chases and enjoyed watching my children overcome their fears and begin to see with eyes of wonder - even in a storm.

And then it dawned on me. I needed to learn to see the spiritual and mental and emotional storms of life in much the same way as I saw a physical storm. Rather than being overwhelmed and overcome by the storms of life, I could step back while in the midst of these storms and see them from God’s point of view. The song Like Lightning and Thunder was born that day and I recorded it just as you will hear it. I added the storm sounds later from a recording of a storm I sat through while on the front porch of our house. This song gives me a much greater appreciation of the magnitude of God’s power and creativity…and it does something very healing in my soul.

SONG

[Psa 135:6-7 NIV] 6 The LORD does whatever pleases him,