Storms and Tempests

Yesterday, I went to watch a production of The Tempest. 

 

It was quite fitting as we had had heavy thunder and rain all day.  In fact, I don't remember ever hearing thunder that loud before.  It sounded both like gunfire (although I'm not sure I've ever actually heard gunfire before, apart from on TV, so what I imagine gunfire sounds like), and someone hammering a sheet of metal.

 

It was noisy and powerful and overwhelming.  And once I got back to my flat, it was exciting.

 

But being caught in the middle of a storm - whether literal or emotional or spiritual - can be terrifying.  We feel out of control.  Powerless.  We are reminded of how small and vulnerable we are and it scares us.

 

The disciples experienced this powerlessness and fear:

"One day Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let's cross to the other side of the lake.'  So they got into a boat and started out.  As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap.  But soon a fierce storm came down on the lake.  The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger.

The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, 'Master, Master, we're going to drown!'  When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves.  Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm.  Then he asked them, 'Where is your faith?'"

[Luke 8:22-24 NLT]

 

When we face storms in our own lives, it can often feel like God is taking a nap.  We wonder how He can be sleeping through it all.  We listen for His voice and look for His fingerprints on the situation and are met with silence. 

 

I listened to someone talk on this passage recently who said, "Like the disciples, we want to shake Jesus awake and say, 'Don't you know what I'm going through?  Don't you care?'" 

 

Don't you care, God?

 

Yes. 

 

Our God cares.

 

The God we cry out to in our storms is the same God to whom the disciples cried out on the lake.  He cares as much about our storms and tempests and trials and troubles as He did about those of the disciples.  And He is longing to calm them for us.

 

Often, in my experience, I have noticed that He will calm us and give us His perfect peace [Philippians 4:8], rather than getting rid of the storm itself.  He enables us to endure the situation - we can weather the storm.

 

In his song, 'You Never Let Go', Matt Redman writes -

 

Even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life

I won't turn back, I know you are near.

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

 

When the storms come, we can ask ourselves, as Jesus asked the disciples - Where is your faith?  Is it in the changeable, stormy circumstances?  Or is it in the One who can quieten and calm the storms with His voice?

Blue Skies

This evening, I flew home on a short internal flight. It was grey and raining when we took off and the plane wobbled as we flew up through the different layers of clouds.


The rain spattered and pattered on the windows and ran down them as we rose up through the clouds. And then all of a sudden, as we broke through the clouds, the rain ran off the windows and we were surrounded by blue skies. The clouds were puffy white islands beneath us that made me think of Aladdin and Jasmine's magic carpet ride.


Whenever I fly, I am always amazed by how, no matter what the weather is like on the ground, there are always clear blue skies above. It can be heavy thunder and lightning and a turbulent flight, but as soon as you get up above the clouds, there is an endless sky of perfect, uninterrupted blue.


In the same way, regardless of the storms in our lives and the 'bad weather' on the ground, if we can get up high enough and rise above the rain, we will find peace and hope in God.


But, in the same way that we can't make ourselves fly (a design flaw in my mind), we often can't lift ourselves up spiritually either. We get stuck beneath the clouds and can't see anything above them. In these times, we can ask others to support us and pray with us but, above all, we can ask God to lift us up.


Isaiah describes God lifting us up when we are exhausted and caught up in the storms.


"He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint."

[Isaiah 40:29-31 NLT]

When we feel tired and run-down and caught in the storms of this life, God can lift us and carry us above the clouds, to a place of peace.