The Perfect Storm

have tried to be a good person and do the right thing, and yet you feel like you are sinking, and you want to know the same thing the disciples wanted to know: “Jesus, don’t you care if I drown? Are you aware of what I am going through?” What is interesting is that when Matthew and Luke tell this story in their gospels, they leave out this question about whether Jesus cared about them and their perilous situation. Matthew and Luke simply record the words of the disciples as, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” (Matthew 8:25, Luke 8:24). I’m sure that these words, and many others, were said as they shouted in fear for their lives. Some Bible scholars conjecture that Matthew and Luke thought the words of the disciples were extremely inappropriate. How could you say that to Jesus? But they did, and those were their true feelings. They were in a storm. They were frightened, and they could not understand how or why this was happening.

Here is what a storm in your life does not mean. It does not mean that God does not love you. It does not mean that God is angry with you, or that he is paying you back for something. God is not toying with you. Sometimes the storms that happen in our lives are self-made. But many times it is just that storms happen, and trying to analyze what happened or assign blame is a fruitless activity. We live in a fallen world. And as Jesus said, “[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). In other words, good and bad happen to all. The important thing is whether or not we are prepared for them.

A TV news camera crew was on assignment in southern Florida filming the widespread destruction of Hurricane Andrew. The camera panned the area where, amid the devastation and debris, one lone house was still standing on its foundation. The owner was cleaning up the yard when a reporter approached him and said, “Sir, why is your house the only one still standing? How did you manage to escape the severe damage of the hurricane?” “I built this house myself,” the man replied. “I also built it according to the Florida state building code. When the code called for 2x6 roof trusses, I used 2x6 roof trusses. I was told that a house built according to code could withstand a hurricane. I did, and it did. It could be that no one else around here followed the code.”

This was a man who understood that storms were coming. It had nothing to do with him, it was about the area in which he lived and the nature of storms. His job was to be prepared. When the sun was shining and the skies were blue, it may have seemed foolish to put the extra expense and trouble into building a hurricane proof house. But when the hurricane came, it was anything but foolish, it was quintessential wisdom. The important thing is not trying to understand all the various reasons why storms come, but to be prepared for them before they do.

The second lesson of this story is: Jesus is with us in the storm. It you are going to be in a storm, the one person you want your boat is Jesus. Jesus could have stayed on the shore and let them take all the chances by themselves, but he did not do that. Where they went, he went.

The problem for the disciples was that he was with them, but he was asleep. He was asleep due to two things: