The Storm-Calmer

Death—of beloved young people in plane and car crashes, beloved elderly people to disease. Upheaval of families due to depressed financial situations or worse yet, torn apart by divorce. Chronic illness, depression, job stress, relation stressors—all part of the storms of life that come to us at some point just by virtue that we live in a fallen, imperfect world.

A scripture jewel I read and thought about this week was Luke 8:22-25 where Jesus asks His disciples to take Him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, the obvious and quickest way being by boat. They all piled in and Jesus was soon asleep because He was tired out from teaching and healing a mass of people in the area He was leaving.

A storm arises which is a common occurrence on the Galilee and the wind and rain were about to swamp the boat, drowning all on board. Someone woke Jesus to tell Him about their dire straits. He immediately rose up and rebuked the storm which instantly calmed. Then He turned to His disciples and scolded them a bit by saying essentially, “Where is your faith?” Even though they had seen Him work miracles with food, heal sick and twisted bodies and even raise the dead, they didn’t understand that their Rabbi, was also the Creator of the universe—so nothing was impossible for Him to do.

As I read this scripture, I was so grateful for the analogy between that storm the disciples were dealing with there on the Sea of Galilee and the storms of life that we have to deal with during our life here on planet Earth.

As Sarah Young aptly wrote, we are so prone to try to fix problems when our abilities are actually very limited. Changing our top priority from trying to fix problems to seeking such a close relationship with the Lord that we are able to see His perspective on the matter makes all the difference. David shared what the Lord told him in Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you and watch over you.”

Praise God—the same Jesus Who calmed the Galilee is also able to calm the turbulent waters in our lives.