Facing The Storms of Life
Mark 4:35-41
If you read the newspaper or listen to the news on radio or television you realize the extent and variety of storms that we face each day For example we have a storm of fear rising over the possibility of a pandemic. Every day we are faced with increasing storms of violence through war and terrorism. There are political storms. There are personal storms as we become victims of crime and violence, of unexpected accidents, of enormous debt, neighbourhood controversy, of marriage breakdown, breakdown of other significant relationship, of sickness and death. With all these it seems like we are always in the midst of a storm. When you think about it, if we let these storms rule our lives we would be afraid to do anything or go anywhere. I did work with a person once who had that affliction. She was a young woman, a mother of two children, but would not leave the house alone. It was a terrible burden to herself and those around her. After many months she finally was able to find the resources within herself to face the world outside.
The question here is not whether you are going to face a storm today. The question is, “What storm are you going to face today?” And “How are we going to face these storms? I think of the country song a few years ago by Randy Travis, The Storms of life are Washing Me Away. Are they washing you away? That’s the way we often feel. Sometimes we just don’t know what we are going to do in the midst of a storm?
I loved the story that came out of the Funny Kids Project by Grace Witwer:
Awhile back, there was a comet due to pass by earth and the debris from its tail was expected to cause a harmless but spectacular meteor shower. Johnny, age 8, heard about it on the evening news and he became concerned. That was about the same time that all the meteor disaster movies were coming out and he’d seen all the advertisements for several those movies. So, he was pretty sure that this meteor shower wasn’t a good thing. His Mom explained there wasn’t any danger, and reluctantly he headed off to bed. When Mom went in to tuck him in for the night, she found he had made his own preparations, just in case Mom was wrong about all those meteors. Those meteors didn’t stand a chance! You see, eight year old Johnny was sound asleep wearing his bicycle helmet. He had his wooden toy rifle in one hand and a loaded squirt gun in the other. (1)
We know that a helmet, a toy rifle and squirt gun would not be much protection against a true meteor disaster. Some of the ways we face the storms of life are pretty much like that. There are some things that can happen to us that we would not have any outward protection against.
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There are many layers of meaning in the stories of Jesus. Certainly in the one we had this morning in the Gospel is like that. Like most great stories, this short story is about the meaning of life – your life and my life. The story begins with Jesus going with his disciples on a simple trip across the Sea of Galilee. I think that the disciples were feeling pretty safe. After all, they were with Jesus and they were in a boat. What could happen? It doesn’t take long before a storm begins to rage. How do the disciples react? They are scared to death. It’s been suggested that they have the same fear that Noah had when he realized he was on a wooden ark with at least two termites. How does Jesus react? He continues to sleep on a pillow in the back of the boat.
Why the difference? I believe that the difference is how each looks at life and where they believe their security lies.
The disciples placed their security in the boat, and in the conviction that Jesus wouldn’t allow anything bad to happen to them. All of a sudden their security was endangered. They were in the midst of a life-threatening storm. It was something that they couldn’t fight against or flee from. The outward circumstances of life was closing in on them. The storms of life “were washing them away”.
Jesus on the other hand realized that his security was not in the outward reality. Whether things went smoothly or if the storms raged, his security lay in the inner resources of his life. I think that when Jesus rebuked the storm he was showing that the power of the Spirit, a power with which we can all access, was greater than the outward circumstances of life that conspire to destroy us. It is that which is within us that will give us the strength to face life as it is, or defeat us.
I am always amazed at how people do respond in the midst of a crisis. They seem to find strength that they didn’t know that had. I think of Paula a number of years ago saving a little baby of a friend of ours through CPR. The child stopped breathing on their way to the hospital. Somehow Paula found the strength and the ability (she had learned CPR but had never used it before) to do the right thing and save her life. That child grew and as a teenager saved three children from a burning building . She discovered within herself the strength and courage to act at great risk.
That is why Paul in the second reading today, (2Corinthians 6:1-13) was able to say,
“but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left” (these are the inner resources of the Spirit.)
Frederick Buechner, a great contemporary Christian and author and novelist, says,
“We have within us, each one of us, so much more power than we ever spend, such misers of miracles are we, such pinch-penny guardians of grace.”(3)
I was caught by a piece that I read a while back about our lives. It was so simple but I couldn’t let it go. I kept repeating it in my mind.
“Within us lies the power that created the sun ,the moon, the sky and all the wonders of the universe. “
That is the power that is available to us when our inner spirit connects with the Spirit of God. To know that, is security. To know that, is true life. You sometimes cannot change the circumstances that you find yourself in, but knowing this truth you can choose to rise above them.
I wrote a poem a first years ago on coming over the hill overlooking Lantzville shortly after I arrived there. I tried to capture that sense that beneath the surface of our lives, down deep inside us, is a power greater than ourselves that can bring us to wholeness:
Coming over the hill
the ocean lay before me serenely sparkling in the sun
so calm, so majestic so wondrous in it’s promise of lifeI know that in awhile the scene will change the wind will blow,
the sea will rage,
the breakers pound against the shoreBut beneath the surface a calm remains
like Grace
bringing life to all the creatures of the deep
and to me in all the turmoil of my changing world
I am not saying that we should not do all in our power to protect ourselves but in some cases there isn’t much security out there in the midst of the storms of life. Only within us can we be secure. That is why it is so important to know ourselves and the inner person, and to nurture the soul, and discover those resources that can help you to live victoriously.
The British Navy has strange custom. If there is a sudden disaster aboard ship, the “still” is blown. Now this particular still is not a place where whiskey is made, but it’s a whistle that calls the crew to a moment of silence in a time of crisis. When the still is blown, people aboard know that it means, “Prepare to do the wise thing.” Observers of this system note that the moment of calm has helped avert many a catastrophe. It has prevented many scatterbrained actions. (2)
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How Do you deal with the Storms of Life? No matter how big the storm may be in your life, we have the assurance today in this story of Jesus and his disciples in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee, that in faith and in the power and energy of the Spirit, we can triumph over it and even in the midst of the storm we can have peace.
Let us pray
Gracious God, when the waves of life threaten to overwhelm us, you hold us securely in your arms. When the chaos of contemporary life causes confusion, your voice soothes us: “Peace, be still. Grant us your peace. We pray through the calm and confidence of the Christ and in the strength and stillness of your Spirit. Amen.
References:
(1) Grace Witwer Housholder, The Funny Kids Project, Kendallville, IN USA, http://www.funnykids.com
(2) and (3) from “In Over Our Heads”, United Church of Christ Speaker, The Rev. Dr. Stephanie Weiner June 22, 2003 and recorded in Day One
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