Every family has a storm story. A job that ended without warning. A diagnosis nobody expected. A season of loneliness, grief or money worries that seemed like it would never lift. When you are in the middle of it, the storm can feel permanent, as if this is simply who you are now.
That is why one short line from Jonathan Anthony Burkett, the founder of Upstormed, speaks so clearly to so many readers:
“The storm came to test you, not to keep you.”
Jonathan Anthony Burkett
It is one of the quotes that appears in our magazine’s daily “Quote of the day.” It is only eleven words long, but it carries a whole way of looking at hard times.
A Storm Is a Season, Not an Address
The heart of this quote is the difference between passing through and staying. A storm is real. The wind is real, the rain is real, the damage can be real. But a storm moves. It is something you go through, not somewhere you live.
When we are hurting, it is easy to let the storm become our identity. “I’m the one who always struggles.” “Our family never gets a break.” Jonathan’s words push back gently against that thinking. The storm may be testing you right now, but it does not get to hold you forever.
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
(Psalm 30:5, KJV)
Words From Someone Who Has Weathered Storms
These are not words from someone who has lived an easy life. As Jonathan shares in his memoir, Neglected But Undefeated: The Life Of A Boy Who Never Knew A Mother’s Love, his early childhood was spent happily with his grandparents in Jamaica. At six he moved back to the United States to live with his mother, and the years that followed were deeply painful. By fourteen he was homeless. In 2005 he faced brain surgery for a disorder that caused seizures, and the surgery was successful.
Any one of those storms could have kept him. Instead, through faith and writing, he chose to forgive his mother and refused to give up. He went on to become an author, a songwriter and an entrepreneur, and to found Upstormed, a name that itself speaks of rising up out of the storm.
His best-known words, from that same memoir, remind us why it matters to look past the surface of anyone’s life:
“You know my name, not my story. You’ve heard what I’ve done, but not what I’ve been through.”
Jonathan Anthony Burkett, Neglected But Undefeated
“The storm came to test you, not to keep you” is, in a way, the next chapter of that story. It is what you can say once you have come through.
What a Test Can Do
A test is not a punishment. In school, a test shows what you have learned and where you can grow. In life, a storm can reveal things we did not know were inside us: patience, courage, compassion, and a faith that holds when everything else shakes.
That does not mean pain is good, or that we should pretend a storm is easy. It means pain does not get the last word. God can use even the hardest season to shape us, and then carry us out the other side.
Living the Quote This Week
- Say it out loud. When you feel overwhelmed, speak the words: “This storm came to test me, not to keep me.” Put it on a sticky note on the mirror or the fridge.
- Look for what the storm is teaching. At the end of a hard day, write one sentence about something you learned or a strength you found.
- Don’t move in. Notice when you start describing a hard season as your permanent identity. Gently change the words: “We are going through a hard time,” not “We are a family that always struggles.”
- Hold on to someone. Storms are easier to walk through together. Call a friend, a pastor or a family member and let them know how you are really doing.
- Help someone else through. Share this quote with someone in the middle of their own storm. It may be the reminder they need today.
For the Parent Reading This Tonight
Maybe you are the one holding everything together for your children while the storm rages. Remember that they are watching more than the weather. They are watching how you walk through it. When they see you pray, keep going and keep loving, they learn that storms can be survived.
The storm may be loud tonight. But it is passing through. You are not. Through every storm, we rise together.
What storm has tested you, and what did you learn on the other side? Share your story in the comments to encourage someone still in the rain.
Learn more about Jonathan at www.jonathanburkett.com
Follow Jonathan on Instagram and Facebook
Sources: Upstormed Family Magazine Quote of the Day (approved by Jonathan Anthony Burkett); Jonathan Anthony Burkett, Neglected But Undefeated (published facts); Goodreads, “Jonathan Anthony Burkett Quotes”; King James Bible, Psalm 30:5.
Leave a Reply