Storms

Scripture passage that caught my attention today: Acts 27:13-15 When a moderate south wind began to blow, they thought they could achieve their purpose; so they weighed anchor and began to sail past Crete, close to the shore. 14 But soon a violent wind, called the northeaster, rushed down from Crete. 15 Since the ship was caught and could not be turned head-on into the wind, we gave way to it and were driven.

Observation: They were caught in a rather helpless situation. Must have been quite a feeling of panic.

Application: Storms. They come. With modern-day forcasting they usually don’t catch us off-guard as much as they used to, but still they come. I can almost imagine the eerie panic of the sailors.

This past fall I traveled within a few hours of where the Edmund Fitzgerald ship (popularized by Gordon Lightfoot’s song of the same name) went down. It was supposed to be the captain’s last voyage. Indeed it was.

In life there are storms that catch us off-guard and ill-prepared as well. An untimely death, divorce, loss of employment, injury and the like can seemingly come out of nowhere. In such times we may attempt to throw down an anchor and find that it just doesn’t take hold. What then?

As the story of Acts 27 plays out, the people—at Paul’s admonition—stayed together. Ironically, even the prisoners’ lives were saved because one of the leaders wanted to save Paul who was himself a prisoner at the time. The account offers one of those feel-good happy endings, save perhaps for the owner of the ship who took an economic hit when his vessel was destroyed by the pounding waves.

Still, whether by outright swimming to shore or by paddling along while riding a remnant of the ship, all made it out of this particular storm alive.

Prayer: Lord, not everybody’s story has such a happy ending. Nevertheless, whenever we face storms in life, help us to weather them by placing our trust in you and drawing strength from those around us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: Numbers 7, Psalm 23, and Acts 27)