The Storms of Life

The Scriptures are full of stories of storms at sea. Paul was shipwrecked. Jonah was thrown overboard because of a storm at sea. The lessons for this Sunday speak of two other storms; one in the Psalm and one in the Gospel. To a people that lived in the desert, water represented a chaotic force of nature. It was something frightening that could not be controlled. If water itself was frightening, then a storm at sea was terrifying. What is Scripture teaching us when it has so many tales of this terrifying event. I think it is warning us that life itself will bring storms from time to time. There will be events that are chaotic and beyond our control. The question is not if we will encounter stormy seas but rather when. The measure of a person is not that they have encountered storms, but how they handle them when they come.

Psalm 107 points to a healthy way to respond. The psalm itself is built around four times of great trial the first is about “those who went astray in the wilderness, being hungry and thirsty so that their soul fainted within them.” 107:4-5 The next speaks of those “who sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, being bound fast in misery and iron.” 107:10 The third trial is for those, “who were foolish and being plagued by their own offenses and because of their own wickedness.” 107:17  Finally, the Psalm ends with those who are “going down to the sea in ships and who carry out their business in great waters.” 107:23  In all these instances those that are suffering, “cry out to the Lord in their trouble.” I think of the disciples crying out to Jesus when the storm arose and he was sleeping in the back of the boat. I have found after many years in ministry that crying out to the Lord is more difficult than it first seems. In times of trial, the devil likes us to believe that it was God who caused the problem in the first place. Even when our suffering is clearly a result of our own bad choices it is all too easy to blame God for our troubles than to accept responsibility and repent. When we blame God and shake our fists at him, we are cut off from the only place we can find healing and salvation. Sometimes bad things happen just because sometimes bad things happen. Once again we have a hard time accepting that and we still attribute them to God. Once again we cut ourselves off from the only source of peace available.

At times we don’t call out to God because we don’t think he is near. The disciples were totally frustrated with Jesus for allowing the storm to get so bad. “Rabbi, don’t you care that we are perishing???”  First of all, we need to realize that Jesus is “in the boat with us.” That is the point of the incarnation. We worship a God who loved us so much he took on flesh and dwelt among us. He is still “in the boat” with us by his Spirit dwelling in us. Yeah, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we need not fear evil, for he is with us, his rod and staff there to comfort us. Don’t listen to the whispers of the devil saying, God is unavailable or that he doesn’t care.

At other times we simply look at the power of the water and the waves and refuse to cry out to God because we think he is not strong enough to rebuke the storm. We forget that he is the one who made the sea in the first place. We forget that he did it with a word from his mouth. The disciples were amazed when the storm ceased and all Jesus did was say, “Peace, be still!”

Another trap we fall into is that we are not patient people. We want things done in our way and in our time frame. Because we don’t get the exact results that we want when we want them, we too often think God is not listening. Sometimes we have to use the eyes of faith rather than the eyes in our head to see the salvation of God. Jesus, the donkey king, dying on a cross didn’t seem to accomplish anything to those who watched him die on the cross. But for those who waited, Easter came and death was conquered. Our sins were paid for and we were saved. It was not the way we would have done it, but the result was more than we could have dreamed.

Four times the Psalm lists a storm of life. Four times it tells us to “Cry out to the Lord in our trouble.” The result is always that he “delivered them from their distress.” “He sent his word and healed them, and they were saved from destruction.+ -Psalm 107:19-20

The main refrain of the Psalm is, ”Oh that they would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness!”   We should long for the day when we become a people of praise always remembering God’s loving-kindness, his goodness, and the salvation and healing that he brings. The first step, however, is being willing to cry out to the Lord in our distress. After all, he is in the boat with us.

†Bp. Mark

Christ on the Sea of Galilee – Eugène Delacroix, 1841.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Public Domain.