I Am the Storm

May 26, 2022 Georgia Tanner

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:40 NIV

“Open your eyes. Look.” These were the simple but very direct instructions I heard before I had a chance to even begin my morning prayers. “Look.”

Anticipating three days at the front row beach house of my friend, we had been watching the weather reports of storms covering the south, deep and wide. Morning greeted us with dark gray clouds hanging low, the roar of crashing waves instead of the gentle roll of calm turquoise waters. Wind blowing. Rain falling. We perched anyway on the balcony overlooking the wet dunes – eye-level with the storming sea beyond.

"Look." I felt God speak to me. "This is who I Am. I am the storm." I felt my mouth drop open in an inaudible "Oh!" as one jagged stroke of lightning spread from the heavens and disappeared in the distant sea against the edge of the horizon. The sky overhead rumbled with His thunder. "This is who I Am." The wind shouted through the waves pushing them forward and sideways, lifting the spray into a glorious arc, and gently blowing my hair across my face and back again. "This is who I Am." The rain fell, tormenting the palm leaves, splashing off the balcony rail, soaking the tile floor, sprinkling on my legs as the thunder continued to rumble unseen above our heads. “This is who I Am.”

“I am the storm. I am the power you cannot stop; you cannot control, you cannot go against. I am the storm you cannot casually wander into; you cannot disregard. If you do, you will be hurt. My waters are dangerous, crushing and pulling into depths too deep. My winds are strong, driving rain against your face, stinging your skin, pushing you back. My lightening is deadly, appearing silently with no warning.” These were the admonitions I imagined as I opened my eyes and looked into the storm filling the sky, buffeting the water.

This is the God we don’t want to look at. The God we close our eyes against. We pray for good weather, clear blue skies, soft breezes, golden sun with friendly soft clouds in the distance. But God is in the storm just as much as He is in the calm.

God asked Job,

“Can you raise your voice to the clouds

and cover yourself with a flood of water?

Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?

Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?” Job 38:34-35 NIV

Lord, oh Lord, how majestic is your name! How majestic is your creation! How majestic is your storm, full of power and might!

We want none of it. We want a controllable world. A controllable God. Don’t rain on our parade we ask nicely. We pray for Your will to be done but we don’t really mean it. We would prefer our will.

Lord, let it not be so. Teach me to open my eyes and look. Teach me to accept your rain and your wind. To embrace your heavy skies with clouds pressing down into rolling waves, all capped white with crashing power. Let me watch expectantly, carefully for your flash of light against the darkened sky. For you are in the storm.

I am reminded of a storm-tossed night on the sea when experienced fishermen carried a sleeping passenger. Fearing for their lives, they woke him with the terrified accusation, "Do you not care?". They were so aware of the waves rolling over them and the wind shoving them and the rain pummeling them, that they couldn't imagine that the God-man with them could possibly sleep through the storm – the storm that was deafening in its sound and fury.

Do you feel that way? Alone in the storm while Jesus sleeps peacefully, quietly… not entering in to save the day? Is it because He knows the storm? It is His creation. His rolling waves. His powerful wind. His rain from His storehouse. His lightning bolts that answer to Him, “Here we are.” If this is true, we are safe with Him in our boat – even if He appears to be sleeping.

“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

It is a question I need to ask myself. If I have faith in His goodness, His righteousness, His sovereignty, why am I afraid? Lord, open my eyes. Teach me to trust You in the storm.

Praise You in the Storm Casting Crowns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YUGwUgBvTU

Photo by Lachlan Ross: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bright-lightnings-with-rainy-clouds-over-ocean-6510344/