Storm Front Coming
Posted: Thursday, November 8, 2007 by My Waverley
I was inspired to write this while looking out a window in a high-rise office building and watching a series of thunderstorms move across the city. I felt now would be a good time to post it as we enter into the end of the year which can be a real stressful time for us.
Storm Front Coming
by Sean C
It is June in Winnipeg, which means it is crazy weather season. A week of brutally hot weather can be followed by a week of rain and frigid temperatures. It can be sunny one hour and pouring rain the next. When it comes to severe weather in Manitoba, there is no fooling around. Rain falls so hard you think you are underneath Niagara Falls. Lightning slams into the earth around you. Thunder roars, shaking your house to the foundations, and hail falls and covers the ground like snow. Sometimes you think it would be quieter if you were in a metal 45-gallon drum with 5 guys beatin’ on it with pipes. In some cases, tornadoes come down and wreak havoc with property and lives.
Sometimes our lives feel like June on the Prairies. One minute life is good – everything is cool with the job, everyone is happy at home, and the weather forecast is calling for sunshine for your golf game tomorrow. The next minute, the skies open up and sock it to you. You find out a supplier can’t deliver on time for a critical project at work; just after you broke a shoelace while tying your shoe. You drag yourself home to find your 6-year old son using your 1,200 dollar Big Bertha composite/ceramic driver, with the carbon-fibre stiff flex shaft and custom grips, to hit rocks across the yard. Then, you turn around to the horror of a mile wide F5 tornado coming up the driveway in the form of your wife driving your new Lexus sedan with a big dent in the front driver’s side quarter panel: And that is just the pre-game show!
Sometimes life hits you so hard you feel totally alone, cut off from everyone. You feel like you want to sink to your knees and cry, laugh, and vomit – all at the same time. Let me ask you – at time like this do you pick up the phone and call a brother? Do you bow your head and ask God for help? Or do you lash out at your family and yell at your son, or shout obscenities at your wife? Why does it seem that when severe storms tear through our life, we want to spawn tornadoes in the lives of the ones we love and the ones who are trying to help us?
Men, let’s analyze this. There are sunny days in your life where we assume things are ok with your family. Then, the storms come up and batter you like a wooden ship on the rocks of a shoal. You end up isolated from your family, isolated from your brothers, and isolated from God. Are you tracking with me? Once again we have fallen for one of Satan’s lies and are held captive by this stronghold of isolation. I think that one of the greatest lies the father of all lies has spun is “You’re a man, you can fix anything – you don’t need anyone. You’re a rock – an island. You’re the man!”
But there is hope. Let me tell you a story:
One sunny day, after a long session of healing the sick and preaching, Jesus and his disciples got in a boat (I like to think it was a 2025 ProV or a Baron Magnum with a 275 Merc Verado on the back) to cross a lake. Jesus was tired, so he went back to the stern (that’s the back of the boat if you didn’t know), covered himself with a tarp and went to sleep. Soon there arose a terrible storm – rain fell in sheets, the wind howled, lightning flashed, and thunder roared. The waves were so high, they were rolling into the boat. The disciples were scared like nobody’s business – and some of these guys had experience working on the water! They were holding on to anything solid hoping not to be washed overboard. Through all this, Jesus slept. So the disciples thought it would be a good idea to wake him up because maybe he could help with the situation. So they crawled hand over hand along to the back of the boat, tore off the tarp that Jesus was laying under and started shouting like mad men. “Jesus, please save us!” “Jesus, we are all doomed! This is it, we’re all gonna die!” Jesus looked at them for a second and said “Oh ye of little faith! Why are you afraid?” In Matthew 8:26 the scriptures say that Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the waves, but in Mark 4:39, he said “Peace. Be Still. – And there was immediate calm. No gradual fading away with the thunder rolling in the distance, but instant calm.
My friends, there can be no peace without the Prince of Peace. When the storms of adversity roar into our lives we must have faith that God is going to get us through it. In times of trouble we need to get down on our knees at the foot of the cross and beg for his mercy and help. In times like this, you have to reach out to a brother for support and to pray with you. You will find that as soon as you turn ownership of the storm over to God and you ask him for help He will say to your heart – “Peace. Be still.” The dent in your Lexus will not miraculously disappear, but the tempest in your heart will be stilled.
You do not know what the word calm means until the Holy Spirit wraps himself around you and brings peace into your life. Have faith my brothers. The Lord our God is all mighty, all powerful, all knowing, and all loving. He is the God of second chances, third chances, and a zillion chances. He is our King, our Father, our Saviour, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is the Word, and He is the Light that shines out into the dark and troubled waters of our lives to guide us home. He is known by many names, but when we reach out to him, he calls us friend.
Let’s pray together:
Our Father in heaven,
Once again I have tried to go it alone and once again I have failed miserably. Lord forgive me for the times when instead of reaching out to you for help, I have turned my back on you and in my foolish male pride thought I could fix the problems on my own. Dear God, I have hurt others around me and I have brought the storms of my life in the lives of my family. Please come into my heart right now, and bring peace to the tempest that rages within.
May God bless you and bring peace into your heart this day.
Amen. |
