Will It Ever Stop? Series

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that it seemed that whenever Dad and I were chatting that our conversations often drifted to storms that we had been in together when we were at sea. And the reason, of course, is that the storms are more memorable than the nice days at sea, not necessarily more pleasant, just more memorable.

And it seemed that whenever the talk turned to storms that inevitably there was one storm in particular that Dad would bring up.

The year I was in grade 12 Dad worked for Atlantic Towing in Saint John on a salvage tugboat. And he worked 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. Often times during his two weeks off Dad would freelance for other companies as skipper. Sometimes he would work on the Pilot boat, running pilots out to ships coming into the harbour. Other times he worked for a company that was dredging Saint John Harbour. And sometimes he worked for a company that owned a retired RCMP patrol boat by the name of the Burin. The Burin was 48-foot-long and a little over 20 years old, if she had of been a horse you’d say that she been ridden hard and put away wet.

And now the Burin’s sole function in life was transporting crew members back and forth to ships that were anchored outside the harbour.

Well, one winter night a storm had settled into the Bay of Fundy and Dad was on call for the Burin. I was in my room doing homework, not that can’t be right, I was in my room reading and Dad came in and told me that he had gotten me some work as a deckhand on the Burin. Which was kind of funny, because I didn’t know I was looking for work as a deckhand on the Burin.

The storm had escalated to the point that they had shut down the Harbour, nothing was going out or coming in. Unfortunately, there was a ship anchored off the city that had allowed a number of their crew to go ashore before the storm had gotten worse. Now the ship had to sail and the company that owned the Burin had accepted the job to get the crew members out to the ship.

The problem was, that they had a skipper, but their regular deckhand refused to go out in the storm, and Dad said that wouldn’t be a problem, he had a deckhand. And he assured me that I wouldn’t have to worry about being sick, that I’d be too scared to be sick he was wrong. I was sick and scared.

It was the most terrifying night of my life. We finally got out to the ship and then we had to get the crew back on board, which meant they had dropped a rope ladder over the side, Dad would bring the Burin alongside, in these enormous waves, I’m not sure how big they were so I’ll make up a number, they were a thousand foot. I would help the crew member get in position, we would go up on a wave, they’d grab the ladder and we’d disappear from under them and every time you just prayed they could hang on.

And it seemed that every time we’d talk about being at sea Dad would bring up the night on the Burin and how scared and sick I was, and then he’d laugh. And I’d remind him that I had never gotten paid for that night and he’d laugh again.

This is week 3 of our "Weathering the Storms of Life" series. On the first week, we looked at the story of Jonah and the storm he found himself in.

And you’ll remember that we learned five things from that story

1) Not Every Storm Is Our Fault

2) Every Action Has Consequences for Others.

3) Don’t Make Major Decisions When You Are in The Midst of a Storm.

4) No Storm Lasts forever

5) The Remedy for Disobedience Is Obedience.

Last week we looked at the time that Jesus calmed the storm that he was in the with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. And from that story we learned:

1) Sometimes Obedience Leads Us into Storms

2) Jesus Is Always With Us In The Storm

3) The Storm Teaches Us About Ourselves

4) The Storm Teaches Us About Jesus

5) It’s Easy to Nap When You Know Who’s in Control.

And again, if you missed those messages the manuscripts and videos are available on the church website.

This week’s story comes from the book of Acts in the New Testament.

So let’s start with The Back Story the story begins when Paul after having returned to Jerusalem to meet with Jesus’ brother James and the other leaders of the baby church is arrested. Paul had been worshipping at the temple and after he was recognized by some of the Jewish leaders a near riot breaks out.