The wind stopped. Up until that point, it had been an overcast, cold, blustery, raw spring day. Not exactly ideal weather for an outdoor event. Even the state park employee in charge of unlocking the gate for us, didn’t bother showing up – he thought we would cancel due to the adverse weather conditions.
For the past several years in the late spring, the adult leaders of Life Covenant Church’s high school ministry, Voltage, have hosted a Send-Off for graduating seniors, which includes dinner and our parting words of advice and wisdom for life ahead. We held this past year’s Send-Off at the Spring Meadow Lake pavilion, which has a roof, but the open sides allowed the wind to whip around under that roof, tossing plates and napkins, ripping off table covers, flinging pizza boxes, and generally making it feel more like early March than May.
After enduring through dinner, we all crammed into the least windy corner of the pavilion. As soon as the first leader began to speak about the students’ need to choose God as a priority in their lives, the wind … stopped.
Dead.
Calm.
By the time the next leader began to speak about the need to serve others and stay engaged with the church, for the first time all day … the sun popped out. I’m not saying I heard an angelic chorus singing when the weather cleared, but they were definitely warming up.
And it stayed calm and sunny, as each adult shared their advice, which basically boiled down to: having Christ as part of your journey through life was crucial.
I couldn’t help but think about Jesus calming the storm. The pattern of that story, as told in the Gospel of Mark (Mark 4:35-41), provides one more bit of life advice for all of us. First, Mark says the disciples “took him along” (v. 36), so they made sure Jesus was with them on their journey before the storm occurred.
Jesus wasn’t in another boat somewhere else on the lake. He was in their boat, with them. Then, when trouble came, they turned to Jesus for help, and He calmed the storm.
Storms and trouble will buffet us around and threaten our safety, security and sanity at times. Turning to Jesus provides a sense of peace, no matter what is raging around us. And it’s better to have Him with you, no matter where your journey is leading you.
Is Jesus in the boat with you?
YES!! Sean is back! How refreshing, and what an amazing story. I believe Jesus is in the boat, caught a big one in the In Box this week. I’ll be praying for continued inspiration and look forward to the next one.
I am with Jim, “Yeah, Sean is back!” I loved “In the Boat”! The Bible is true and has the miracles recorded for us to hang on to, but what I love about this is how that is put in our world today – “the Living Word”! Thank you for sharing how God is with us and calms the storms we are facing, and through each storm, our faith grows!!!