This past week has been wet, rainy, and yes a little stormy at times as well. In fact this past Thursday as I was about to head to my sister's house to watch Survivor I noticed the winds picking up and the clouds looming over head and although rain was beginning to fall the sun was still shining. Not wanting to out run another tornado in one year... I decided it was best to check for any warnings before heading out the door. Should I go or stay?? Well I decided to go.. maybe it was my desire for adventure... maybe it was the fact that I had cabin fever from staying at home for 3 days.. or the fact that there were no storm warnings posted. As the sun blinded my eyes.. and the rain blurred my vision ... I witnessed a breath taking moment as a full rainbow stretched over my apartment complex. WOW! I wished I had my camera to capture the moment..but then some moments are best captured in the memory. The moment was so beautiful that I had to call my sister to make sure she didn't miss it. And to think I almost missed it myself.. because I was scared of being caught in a storm.
The whole situation reminded me of a passage of scripture I have been wrestling with this semester. It is a familiar Sunday school story to some... Jesus calming the storm. I struggled with this passage because I feel like that if I were a disciple I'd probably wake up Jesus.. If you knew you had the Son of God with you would you want him to do something? So when Jesus rebukes them, " Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" I would be crushed. I'd be like of course I have faith.. didn't I wake you up to do something! So as these questions paraded through my brain.. I knew that there had to be something more... something that God wanted me to know.
My impression of the situation is this... the disciples knew that Jesus was in the boat.. so no matter what the weather was they should have known they were safe. Jesus didn't have to demonstrate his power to them for them to be safe. So.. how does this apply to my life? (and maybe yours too) Life brings storms in all kinds of forms and I'm not going to try to quantify them. However, for me with Jesus in my life, I know that I will be safe in his arms. He might not always stop the storm... but he'll be there and I can trust him. In fact just as without the storms I would not have seen my rainbow... sometimes making it through the challenging times in life I am able to see the clearest blessings. But if I were to scared to face the storm I may never known the blessing.
I myself have just weathered the storm of a career change... realizing that my heart was not in the engineering industry... I leaped into the storm of the unknown future (a very scary one for me) and pursued what God might have in store for me. (well I did have an inkling it would involve science and students) Now this storm has cleared... and I have a bright new challenge of teaching science to high school students in the fall. I'm excited to get started.. but I know it will be a challenge with its own frustrations and "storms" to give to God.
Now I'm not suggesting that you chase tornados... what I'm saying is.. that when you find yourself in a challenging, frustrating, crushing, or tiring situation... have faith! and know that Jesus is here and you will make it through.
A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
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