Prayer Journal – Entry from the Storm

Prayer Journal – Entry from the Storm

By Kateb

Today, something deep in the air shifted.

The sky darkened, and before the thunder even spoke, I could feel You moving.

You didn’t need a door or an introduction

You just entered through the atmosphere,

and I knew it was You.

You call me by the thunder.

That’s how You get my attention when I’ve drifted too far again.

It’s never harsh not really.

It’s fierce, yes.

But it’s a fierce kind of love.

A holy sound that wakes up the part of me I forget to water.

The thunder doesn’t just crack the sky

it cracks me open, too.

You speak through it, not to frighten me, but to remind me:

You are still here.

You still want me.

You still love me.

There are days I don’t listen to the gentler signs.

I get busy with this life, tangled in doubt and distractions.

So You roar.

And I’m grateful You do.

That thunder rolls through my soul like a drum calling me home.

And when it fades, I can still hear it inside me.

The echo of You, saying:

"Come back.

You are not forgotten.

You are not alone."

Then the wind came.

I stepped outside and let it touch my face.

Soft and sure.

It didn’t have to say much just moved around me like a guiding hand.

And I realized… You’re in the wind too.

You use it to steer me, to carry off what no longer belongs to me.

My regrets, my stubbornness, my need to control it all the wind whispered them away

until all that was left was space.

Space for You.

And then rain.

Beautiful, sacred rain.

You must have sent it just for me.

Because I stood there, and let it fall.

And something inside me started to fall, too.

Walls I’d built, burdens I’d hidden,

old wounds I swore I’d buried You washed them all.

Every drop said,

"Start again. Be new. Be mine."

So I did.

Or at least I’m trying.

And finally, the stillness.

Oh, Creator…

that stillness is where I feel Your love most of all.

No noise. No signs.

Just silence that isn’t empty, but full

of peace, of knowing, of You.

That silence held me like arms.

It reminded me that I don’t have to chase You.

You're already within me.

You’ve always been.

I don’t know how long I’ll be here.

I feel the impermanence of it all.

But while I am here,

let my life be a prayer.

Let my breathing be worship.

Let my stillness be trust.

Thank You for calling me by the thunder

when I was deaf to the wind.

Thank You for cleansing me with rain

when I was too tired to cry.

Thank You for cradling me in silence

when I had no words left to pray.

You are the voice in every storm,

the whisper in every breeze,

the mercy in every downpour,

and the peace that follows every chaos.

I hear You.

I love You.

And I’m still listening.

Kateb Nuri-Alim Shunnar