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As someone who grew up in Florida, I have a certain fascination with hurricanes. In fact, one of the most recent times I was scheduled to speak at a church in Florida, they had to cancel because a hurricane was bearing down on them. I shared with church leaders that people had gone to great lengths to avoid hearing me preach, but evacuation seemed a bit much!
It’s amazing to think of how devastating such storms can be. Visit New Orleans or the Mississippi Gulf Coast and you’ll see they are still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Just a few years ago, Hurricane Andrew caused more than $26 billion in damage. News reports say that Hurricane Charley’s final damage estimate hit about $15 billion.
Part of the problem with these big storms is that even with all the amazing technology at our disposal, we can’t always predict where and when they’re coming. You remember that forecasters thought Hurricane Charley was going to make landfall around Tampa; instead, it blew into an area much further south and took thousands of people by surprise. You just can’t predict when or where a storm might hit.
Thinking about that reality reminded me of an episode in the life of Jesus. Luke tells us about it in the 8th chapter of his gospel, verses 22-25.
It’s probably been a busy day of ministry for Jesus and His disciples when He tells them to follow Him to the lake – what we call the Sea of Galilee. They are going to the other side – about six miles across – and they haven’t been in the boat long before Jesus falls asleep.
They are part way across when it happens: one of those unexpected storms falls upon them. Such storms are not uncommon there. The water’s surface of the Sea of Galilee is about 680 feet below sea level, and it is surrounded by steep hills. Cool air comes through those hills, hits a ravine and suddenly encounters the warm air that’s been trapped over the water. Even our modern-day TV weather guys could tell you that combination of factors will make for volatile weather conditions!
Describing the same event, Matthew says that the storm is a shaking (or seismos) of the boat. Luke calls it a whirlwind. They were both right. If you’ve ever seen a picture of a first-century Palestinian fishing boat, you know they were wide but not very deep. You can just imagine a violent storm coming upon them without notice, the wind shaking the boat as the rain and the waves began filling the boat with water. This was no ordinary squall, because the fishermen are as scared as the non-fishermen. The fishermen started bailing water as fast as they could while the non-fishermen wondered what to do. And they were all terrified.
Storms do happen, don’t they, and they often come without warning. It happens in nature, and it happens in our lives. I suspect you can think of some storms that have come into your life unexpectedly – an illness or even the sudden death of a loved one; the shocking loss of a job that you thought was going well; a spouse comes in one day and says, “I’m leaving.” You never saw it coming, but all at once you found yourself in the middle of a storm.
Storms come for all sorts of different reasons. Sometimes we bring a storm on ourselves -- because of things we do or say. We make a bad decision or a foolish choice and a storm may result. We listen to some bad advice and reap the consequences. We try to cut corners or get away with something we know we shouldn’t do, and then we experience the results. We’ve all been in that kind of storm at one time or another.
Then again, there are other storms that show up through no fault of our own. You’ve exercised and eaten a healthy diet, and still you get the call from the doctor, who says, “We’ve gotten the test results, and there is some bad news.” Or the economy takes a downturn, your company has to let people go, and you find yourself knocking on doors and wondering when you’ll see the next paycheck. That’s a storm.
Some people think that storms only come when you are out of God’s will, but we know that’s not true, don’t we? Just look at these disciples. They have done exactly what Jesus asked them to do, and now they are caught in a vicious storm. Storms don’t only come to the lives of bad people. In Matthew 5, Jesus says that God, “makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong.” Sometimes you find yourself in a storm even when you are exactly where God wants you to be.
That was the case for these disciples. In fact, they were in that storm precisely because they needed to learn a vital lesson. They needed to learn that Jesus is Lord even of the storms.
These disciples had been with Jesus quite some time already. They have heard His teaching, and they’ve seen him bring physical healing to many people. In Luke 7 they’ve even seen Jesus give new life to the widow’s son who had died. They’ve had plenty of time to realize that this is no ordinary man they are following.
Yet what happens when they encounter the storm out on the sea? They panic. They wake Jesus up yelling, “We’re going to die!” They are consumed with terror. What does Jesus do? Jesus gets up, calms the sea, and then asks them, “Where is your faith?”
He’s not mad because they woke Him up. He’s concerned because after all this time together, they still don’t realize what He is capable of doing. Why did they panic; why were they filled with fear when He was right there with them?
I read recently that a turkey and an eagle react very differently to an approaching storm. The turkey reacts by running under the barn to hide, hoping the storm will go away. The eagle, on the other hand, leaves the nest, spreads its wings, and rides the air currents of the storm, apparently knowing that the storm will carry it higher than it could ever soar on its own.
Jesus wakes up to find a bunch of turkeys on the boat! Think about some of the storms that have come into your life. Have you reacted like a turkey or an eagle? Jesus wanted His disciples to learn to soar in the storm, not to panic and hide. And He wants us to learn to soar in our storms as well.
I got to know Nancy Guthrie through her work with Christian publishers in the Nashville area, where we both live. In her book Holding On to Hope, Nancy tells the story about how she and her husband gave birth to a baby daughter, only to find out that the baby had a metabolic disorder called Zellweger Sydrome, which keeps the child’s body from being able to get rid of toxins. It’s a condition for which there is no treatment, no cure, and there are no survivors. Most children with the condition don’t survive much more than six months. That was the case with Nancy and David’s little girl, Hope, who was born in November and died the following June. Compounding the pain, a couple of years later Nancy and David were expecting another child, a little boy, and he also was born with Zellweger Syndrome, so they walked through the same experience all over again.
Nancy began writing during this time. She struggled with why her family was experiencing this storm in their lives. She writes, “The world tells us to run from suffering, to avoid it all costs, to cry out to heaven to take it away. Few of us would choose to suffer. Yet when we know that God has allowed suffering into our lives for a purpose, we can embrace it instead of running from it, and we can seek God in the midst of our suffering.”
She goes on to say, “The Cross is the ultimate example of God’s ability to work all things together for good – even the most wicked deed darkness ever conceived. Surely if God would require such intense suffering of his own Son who he loved to accomplish a holy purpose, he has a purpose for your pain and for my pain. And perhaps part of that purpose is to learn obedience from what we suffer.
“Why has God allowed so much suffering in your life? Ultimately, the purpose is not to disfigure you for life but to mold you into a person who thinks and acts and looks like Christ.”
How do you respond to storms with that kind of assurance? It is only possible when you know the One who ultimately has authority over the storm.
Jesus woke up to find a boatload of terrified disciples expecting to die. What does Jesus do? Luke tells us He rebuked the storm – it’s the same word the gospels use elsewhere to describe what Jesus says as He commands demons to leave a person. So Jesus commands the storm to cease, and suddenly there is calm.
There’s an interesting connection here, for Luke tells us that as soon as the boat lands, Jesus and the disciples encounter a demon-possessed man living among the tombs, and Jesus also commands the demons to depart from him.
What’s going on here? As the disciples responded when the storm stopped, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” (8:25)
Who is this? This is the Lord. This is the One who created the universe with a word. This is the One who sustains the crated order by the power of His word. This is the One who has authority over the physical and the spiritual order – the One who commands both storm and demon, and they must obey.
And He is the One who is with us in our storms. He is the One who enables us to face even tragedy and suffering with the assurance that He is with us and He will carry us through, no matter what.
That’s why the apostle Paul, even as he was facing his own execution, could write, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7) We do not have to be afraid, because He is with us.
On March 1, 1991, Jean and Ken Chaney took a trip to Fresno, California. On the way, they were driving on a non-maintained road in the Sierra National Forest when their car skidded into a snow bank. This devoted, elderly couple died in their car waiting for a rescuer who never came. Their bodies were found May 1st – two months later.
When the road crew found their car and their bodies, they also found their diary. The entry on March 18th describes Ken’s death. “Dad went to the Lord at 7:30 this evening, March 18. It was so peaceful I didn’t even know he left. The last thing I heard him say was ‘Thank the Lord.’ I think I’ll be with him soon. Bye. I love you.”
How can a person reach that stage so that even death loses its terror and becomes a homecoming? Because Ken and Jean knew the One who controls the storm. As a result, they could soar like eagles all the way home.
If you were following news reports of the Iraq war early a few years ago, you’ll remember David Bloom, a prominent international reporter for NBC News. Bloom chose to go to Iraq to be embedded with the Third Infantry Division. He became well-known for his reports from a mocked-up personnel carrier that came to be known as the “Bloom-mobile.” One morning the 39-year-old reporter had been cramped up in his vehicle for several hours. As he finally stopped, he climbed out of the vehicle and collapsed. Within moments he was dead from a pulmonary embolism.
What many Americans didn’t know until that time was that two years earlier, David Bloom had given his heart to Christ while reading Chuck Colson’s book Born Again. He had become part of a weekly Bible study, and even in Iraq was continuing to share devotional materials via e-mail.
A week later, hundreds of prominent and influential leaders from media and government participated in a memorial service for David at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Most who had come to pay their respects had not been aware of David’s faith in Christ. During the memorial service, the audience heard one after another of the e-mails David had sent to his wife, Melanie, describing his growing faith in Jesus Christ. The last e-mail has been received just hours before David’s death. It was read to the crowd and later published in a national magazine. It contained this testimony:
“You can’t begin to fathom, cannot begin to even glimpse the enormity of the changes I have and am continuing to undergo. God takes you to the depths of your being, until you’re at rock bottom, and then, if you turn to Him with utter and blind faith and resolve in your heart and mind to walk only with Him and towards Him, (He) picks you up with your bootstraps and leads you home.”
Because of David’s faithfulness, his death became a powerful testimony to a lost world. And because of David’s trust in the One who controls the storm, he could soar like an eagle all the way home.
What do you do when you find yourself in a storm?
First, make sure you’re in the right place. There are some places you don’t want to be during a hurricane, aren’t there? When that kind of storm is on the way, you want to get to a safe place.
But not all storms arrive with winds and waves, do they? Some storms hit us where we work or in our family or in our health. When life’s storms hit, God’s family is a safe place to be. This is where God has called us to help one another, share with one another, encourage and support one another when those storms hit. Be in the right place.
What else do you do when you find yourself in a storm?
Make sure you have the right equipment. Whenever a hurricane is on the way, the stores are jammed with people buying bread and milk, batteries, plywood, and on and on. When a storm is coming, you need the right stuff on hand.
When you are facing a storm in your life, there is no more important equipment than having the Word of God, the Bible. Chuck Swindoll told the story of William Cowper, who went through a terrible crisis in his life and tried to commit suicide. He first tried poison, but it didn’t kill him. The next day he tried to fall onto a sharp knife but the blade broke! He later tried to hang himself, but was found and taken down unconscious but still alive. At that point he picked up a Bible, began to read the book of Romans, and gave his life to Jesus Christ. As Swindoll puts it, “The God of the storms had pursued him unto the end and won his heart.” Years later, Cowper sat down and wrote these familiar words: “God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, / and rides upon the storm.” God’s Word will point you to God’s truth in the midst of the storm.
What else do you do when you find yourself in a storm?
Not only do you want to be in the right place and have the right equipment, you also want to make sure you have the right help. Whatever the storm, there is no greater help to have than the One who has authority over every storm. Whatever storm you may be facing, know that God will be with you. That is why the Psalmist could say, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
No matter what the storm may be – a hurricane or a terrible disease, a job loss or a family crisis, or something altogether different – we have confidence in the knowledge that we know the One who controls the storm. And whether he calms the storm or simply carries us through it, He will not leave us alone.
It was in August 1964 that Hurricane Cleo hit. My family lived in Merritt Island, on the east coat of Florida near Cape Canaveral. Hurricane Cleo made landfall in south Florida and worked her way up the coast. I was preparing to begin 5th grade, we had only been living in Florida a couple of years, and this was my first experience with a hurricane.
It was all very exciting. We’d lived through a tornado that hit our farm in Illinois a few years before, but somehow a Florida hurricane seemed more exotic than a Midwestern twister. I still remember that we had our supplies together, my dad had taped the windows, and we were all hunkered down in the middle of the house. (He told me the other day that he remembers that he didn’t take the tape down right away, it dried on the windows, and it took him hours to scrape that tape off!)
I suppose it could have been a pretty terrifying experience, but I don’t recall being all that afraid. You see, my dad had taken care of things. I knew from experience that he took care of our needs, and I had no reason to believe he would fail me this time.
If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, then you are part of God’s family. Your Father is the One who controls the storm. So you don’t have to be afraid any more. You can face the storms with confidence, knowing that when the time comes, He will help you soar like an eagle all the way home.
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notes:
i Luke, Darrell L. Bock (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), p. 152.
ii Anne Graham Lotz, Why? (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2004), p. 25.
iii Nancy Guthrie, Holding On to Hope (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1002), p. 40, 42-43.
iv Lotz, p. 95.
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Michael Duduit is Editor of Preaching magazine and Director of the National Conference on Preaching, which will be held April 7-9, 2008, in suburban Washington, DC. (www.preaching.com/ncp) Effective June 1, 2008, he will also serve as Dean of the Graduate School of Ministry at Anderson University in Anderson, SC.
