Contagious Calm Series

A. Philippians 4:5 (READ)

1. How many DISASTERS have been AVERTED because one person REFUSED to buckle under the

STRAIN and remained CALM?

a. How many MARRIAGES were SAVED?

b. How many FRIENDSHIPS remained INTACT?

c. How many CHURCH DIVISIONS were AVOIDED?

2. It’s this kind of composure that Paul is urging when he writes, “Let your gentleness be evident to all.”

a. The word that Paul uses for “gentleness” describes a temperament that is “seasoned and mature”.

b. It is translated elsewhere as being “peaceable, forbearing and considerate.”

c. It speaks of one who is “CALM” even in the midst of CHAOS.

ILLUSTRATION:

It was this sense of CALM found in one man who AVERTED a NUCLEAR WAR between the United States and Russia and an almost certain start to World War III.

In October 1962, the height of the Cuban MISSILE CRISIS, four Soviet SUBMARINES were on a secret mission off the coasts of Florida and Cuba when they are discovered by the US Navy. President John F. Kennedy set up a NAVAL BLOCKADE not allowing any sea traffic in the area.

The Soviets counted eleven US Navy WARSHIPS and one AIRCRAFT CARRIER on their RADAR as they SUBMERGED deeper into the Ocean in attempt to HIDE. The Americans began dropping depth charges sending the SUBS rocking and shaking with each new explosion. What the US Navy didn’t know was that each SUB was armed with a NUCLEAR WARHEAD that roughly had the power of the BOMB that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan that killed over 250,000 people.

The OFFICERS and CREW were already AGITATED from the 120-degree temperature they had to endure for several days. Their vessels were designed for northern POLAR waters, not the TROPICAL Atlantic. As the depth charges came closer, the FRANTIC commander of the Soviet subs ordered nuclear-tipped TORPEDOES to be readied to FIRE at the American Ships on his command.

Infuriated the COMMANDER shouted, “Maybe the war has already started up there… We’re gonna blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all—we will not become the shame of Russia.”

Another Soviet officer, the second in command named Vasili Arkhpov, described by his wife as “a calm, modest, soft-spoken man”, asked for a moment with his Captain. In the midst of elevated FEAR and ANXIETY, the two men stepped to the side to speak PRIVATELY. Arkhpov CALMLY urged his SUPERIOR to reconsider, and then made a BOLD suggestion that the Captain SURFACE and SPEAK to the Americans, which, SURPRISINGLY, he did.

The Americans surrounded the SUB and kept the Soviets under surveillance, but they didn’t BOARD. There were no INSPECTIONS, so the US Navy had no idea that there were NUCLEAR WARHEADS on those subs—and wouldn’t know for another 40 years. Two days later the Soviets turned away from Cuba and headed north, back to Russia.

B. As Max Lucado writes, “Contagious CALM in the midst of HIGH ANXIETY can eternally change

lives and the course of events.”