Thought for Today
Job 30:22 You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
Psalm 57:1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the destroying storms pass by.
Matthew 8:24 A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him up, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" 26 And he said to them, "Why are you afraid, you of little faith?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm.
As I look out the window this morning, the sky is partly cloudy and the wind is completely still. I can see the sun peaking out through the rifts in the clouds. Yet, the local meteorologist is warning of violent weather soon to come. We are being warned of heavy rain, strong winds and even possibly hail. This has already shaped up to be a year of violent, turbulent weather. Tornadoes have ravaged much of the mid-continent and the South.
I am thankful that we have the technology today to forecast storms, tornadoes and hurricanes with some accuracy. Meteorology is a very complex science. The various natural phenomena involved dance an intricate pattern of interactions to produce both good and bad weather, storm and calm. Everything from ocean temperatures to volcanic emissions to smoke from forest fires affect our weather. Irrespective of cause, by every measure, we are in a period of global warming. Increasingly violent and disruptive weather is a direct result of that warming.
Every theory I have encountered about the origin and development of our planet includes periods of extreme weather. We seem to also detect extreme weather on other planets, dust storms on Mars, extreme atmospheric conditions on Venus, etc. There seems to be an almost universal element of truth in the old adage, “There’s going to be weather, whether or not!”
Winds, rains, hail, thunder and lightning all figure prominently in the Bible. Often they seem to be indicative of the presence of God, “Exodus 19:16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled.” Does God have to resort to such extreme measures to get our attention?
One of the things Greta and I have loved about living in New England is how rarely we have thunderstorms. Thunder and lightning are not at all common here. No matter where one lives, however, thunder, lightning and strong winds are used as metaphors for the conditions of our lives. For us all, there are periods in life much like our weather here this morning. Calm, clear to partly cloudy, mild temperatures. Times of little to no stress. Times when everything is going well and life, like a boat on calm seas, progresses along the charted path.
Sometimes those calm times in life are mere, brief respites from the storms. Sometimes those calm times even become difficult for us, with no wind to fill our sails. Such times can force us to exert great effort to ‘row’ the boats of our lives across the still seas.
Other times in our lives are more like the storm in Matthew 8. Metaphorically, the ‘boats’ of our lives are tossed about on the storms of our lives to such an extreme that we feel like shouting "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"
In such times, like the disciples in that boat, we are assured that Jesus will answer our plea. Jesus will get up and rebuke the winds and the sea; and there will be a dead calm. Such times always recall for me the story of Elijah, fleeing from the anticipated retribution of Jezebel, “1 Kings 19:11 Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.”
Stay safe, find God in the storms and in the silence, trust God,
Pastor Ray