I live on the east coast and we have a good number of hurricanes or tropical storms pass through. The worst one that I can remember was Isabel, a storm that took out our electricity for almost two weeks and forced us to evacuate and stay with friends for a while until the roads were cleared and it was safe to go home again. I vividly remember hearing that the storm was coming and getting ready for it, with flashlights, bottled water and canned foods as well as crackers. Then, as the storm got closer, Harry and I prayed together for safety. The rain was pounding, the thunder was crashing and the lightning just seemed to light up the sky with one lightning bolt after another. We didn’t sleep much that night; the electricity went out early in the evening and since we live rurally we were in total darkness except for our small lanterns and flashlights. But, we made it through the storm safely. When Harry went out to scout around, he found that there were electrical lines down everywhere and it wasn’t really safe to go anywhere yet. But once it was, we moved to stay with someone else who still had electricity. The storm was powerful and scary, but there are worse storms to be in.

There are storms of broken family relationships. My siblings don’t all talk to each other but they all talk to me. That makes things awkward for me, to say the least. Some of my siblings won’t talk to my sons because the latter are so liberal. I don’t believe as my sons do, but they are still my sons, so I try to mediate that situation, too. My sister has a health issue that is causing her to go blind. My daughter had a cancer scare last year. We have three grandchildren going to college this year, and we all know that college is expensive and sometimes their ideas aren’t worth having. My husband and I are both getting older and have decisions to make about our future. The list of storms of life goes on endlessly.

As I look around the “boat of my life,” I am convinced that I would not have made it this far without Jesus calming the storms. He doesn’t always calm the storms around me. He calms me so that I have a different perspective and can maintain peace even in the middle of the storm.

When the storms of life are shouting for attention, Jesus makes them whisper and when the waves want to toss me around, Jesus makes them still. Are there still storms happening? Yes, every day. Why, I can’t go a few hours without someone trying to disturb my peace with a troubling story or a complaint. I take them all to the Lord and continue, with my sea calmed and the voices becoming a whisper in the background. The voice that stands out will be that of the Lord telling me to “Peace, Be still.” Yes, that’s right. He calms me so that I can face the storms. Does that mean that I am always calm? No, but I am a work in progress. What it means is that I am trying to remain calm and when that doesn’t happen naturally (which it seldom does), I ask for Jesus’s intervention and He is faithful to calm me to face the storm. Then, He calms the storm and the thing that I feared or dreaded is not a hurricane but only a mild wind storm that passes quickly.

Peace…be still!