How to Navigate a Storm
When our kids were small we took summer vacations to the mountains of Colorado with bicycles. One year my wife was pulling our toddler in a bike-buggy behind herself. I was pulling a “trail-a-bike” with our middle daughter, and our ten-year-old was riding her own small bike. Sounds like a fun family time until the weather turned abruptly. We went from sunny and high seventies temperature to forties, high winds, thunder and lightning, heavy rain, snow, and hail all within a few minutes. We were about five miles from our condo and could only ride as fast as my ten-year-old daughter could pedal! Each time hail would hit our arms it felt like getting hit by a paintball gun - over and over again. The girls were screaming loudly in fear and in pain and honestly, it was a pretty scary event. We eventually took shelter under the front porch of a construction house where we huddled closely together in our summer clothes and shook in the cold for about an hour while the storm passed. It is no wonder my kids aren’t enthused about bike rides today! It was a storm, it caught us by surprise, it was scary, and I struggled as the dad on how to navigate the circumstances.
There is a story in the bible (Mark 4:35-41) where Jesus’ followers found themselves in a storm. They were directed in the evening hours by Jesus to get in their boat and head across the lake to the other side. Trusting Jesus’ direction, they obeyed and found themselves in a scary storm with waves breaking over the boat and filling it with water. What is even crazier is that Jesus, exhausted from the day, fell asleep in the back of the boat and was seemingly oblivious to their dangerous predicament. Within this story, I believe God gives us some direction on how to navigate through our own storms:
○ Jesus is in the boat with us - it may appear that he is asleep, but there is no better scenario than having Jesus in your life at every moment!
○ The disciples waited until the boat started to sink before they woke Jesus.
○ The storm ended when Jesus spoke into it! Jesus will speak into the storm, but that only happened after the disciples asked for help!
Did I stop and circle us up to ask Jesus to help that scary day? No, I was too busy trying to get us to pedal faster. Did I accept the offer from a gentleman who wanted to help? No. I pushed forward thinking I could do things on my own…
When the next storm comes…
Pastor Don Erehart
