As Storms Calm

“Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?’ – for the sea was growing more tempestuous.” Jonah 1:11-12.

Yesterday I rode with Bruce to get his hair cut, but I sat in the car with the windows down and the beautiful breeze wafting through the car.  I was doing a crossword puzzle on my phone when I suddenly heard a man yelling into his phone.  I looked up and saw a man pacing beside his truck completely oblivious to people around him.  Three or four times he yelled into the phone that he didn’t have the money for whatever the person on the other end was requesting.  He went on to yell that he was done with being used and begged the person to just take their things and leave him alone.  His voice was full of despair and pain and the last thing I heard him yell was that his head was about to explode over the situation.  I was suddenly transported back to a time when I could relate to this man being controlled by a dysfunctional situation to the point of rage and feelings of betrayal.  This man found himself ‘on board a ship with a tempestuous sea threatening his life.’  He just wanted the sea to be calm and out of exhausting desperation he was willing to ‘throw that person overboard.’  I sat in the car with tears streaming down my face reminiscing about times aboard my own ship with the seas fiercely crashing over the sides. 

There are times in all of our lives when we share a charter with someone whose presence creates chaos and fear.  Sometimes the charter is an illness that makes us physically sick and sometimes it is a broken relationship that we desperately try to hold onto.  I can’t get this man’s plea out of my head, and I found myself in prayer for him, with fresh awareness and gratitude for the calm in my own life.  No matter what storm rages around us God is in control.  He stirs up the waters and calms the sea…He created the ebb and flow of life to ensure we would look for Him in all circumstances.  God will call us to let go of things that create havoc in our lives whether they are people, attitudes or situations.  When we carefully examine our troubles against the backdrop of the cross, we remind ourselves that surrender and trust in God will topple any situation. 

“So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.  Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows.” Jonah 1:15-16.