A Whale Of A Storm Series

Storms of Life 1

It seemed that whenever Dad and I swapped stories about the time we spent together at sea we always wound up talking about storms.

We’d talk about how rough it got, how long it lasted, how sick Denn was.

I began making trips with Dad on the tugs when I was fourteen, when I was fifteen I got summer work as a deckhand on the tugs and then I joined dad on the herring seiner when I graduated from High School and so we had been on more than just a few storms together. And the reason we ended up talking about the storms is that the storms were what made the times a sea memorable.

There were a lot more beautiful days then there were stormy days, but the beautiful days were all alike. It was Tolstoy who wrote “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” And nice days at sea are all alike, but every storm was stormy in its own way.

And some of the storms were dangerous and some were scary, and all included me throwing up at some point.

But even knowing that there would be storms, my father spent most of his life at sea. Both as a child and as an adult. And if you had of asked him why he choose a life at sea, even with the possibility of storms and the potential danger in those storms I think he would have just looked at you blankly, not understanding the question.

After all, for Captain Burton Guptill, there was no other life than a life at sea. He would have embraced the words of Vincent Van Gogh who wrote, “The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”

When we think of storms, most of us can think of a weather storm that was memorable for us. Maybe Juan or White Juan if you’ve been in Halifax for any length of time.

I remember the Ground Hog Day gale of 1976, I was in grade 10 when that storm went through Saint John.

In 1978 while I was fishing with Dad we lost our engines and spent a night in a crazy storm in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Probably wouldn’t have been all that memorable if we had of had our engines, but we didn’t.

But there are other storms that we remember that don’t have anything to do with the weather. Financial storms, relationship storms, health storms.

When I was a young teenager my father decided to make a career change and go back to sea, so he quit his job and went to navigational school. There were some financial storms in the Guptill household during those years. And we’ve often told stories about those storms as well.

Disease, divorce and death are all storms that have affected people at Cornerstone, and as long as we are on the journey called life there will be storms. Some of those storms you might see coming, others seem to come out of nowhere.

For the next three weeks I am going to be looking at “Weathering the Storms of Life”.

Because here is the reality, every one of us will face storms. As long as we are on this journey called life, storms will come.

I remember a poster from my teen years that said, “A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” But there is no harbour in life where you will be safe from storms.

Sometimes we think that we are in a safe harbour and then a phone call, a knock at the door or a routine doctor’s appointment shatters that illusion.

But, with that being said, there are things you can do to make sure that you survive and maybe even thrive in the midst of the storm.

Today’s story comes from the Old Testament, a very familiar passage of scripture, the story of Jonah and the whale, or the great fish. Take your pick, and while the story of Jonah and whatever ocean-going creature swallowed him is a great story, we’re not going that far into the tale.

Jonah 1:1-2 The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

So, let’s begin with The Back Story The story begins with this man name Jonah being called to leave his life in the Northern Kingdom of Israel to go and preach in the city of Nineveh, which was located in what was then called Assyria and now is called Iraq.