Calmed the Storm: What DID Jesus DO?
I woke up to a slew of Accuweather notifications.
I have my notifications for the app set to my home location as well as my parent’s home in Florida, so I’m never really sure whether the alert pertains to me or them. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and squinted at the screen, attempting to get my brain to register the details of this weather emergency.
Apparently, a tropical cyclone was heading directly for my parents down south.
As the day wore on, my phone kept dinging with notifications related to the impending doom. We have a ritual with my parents where they call us after they finish their dinner–which also happens to be the precise moment I’m putting dinner on the table or immediately after we’ve sat down to dinner. Consequently, it’s like we figuratively eat dinner with my folks on the daily.
I answered my dad’s phone call with, “So, you all geared up for the tropical cyclone headed your way?” to which my dad responded, “There’s a storm coming?” in his very typical way. I started relaying all the details I had collected from the super reliable Facebook posts I’d been seeing all day, and finally just said, “Dad, why do I know more about your weather than you do?”
In the ten years my parents have lived in the south, there has only been one time when they’ve evacuated and headed back north in preparation for a storm–and I’m convinced they only left then because they didn’t know any better and weren’t seasoned Floridians yet.
Now, when there’s a tropical storm or even hurricane headed their way, they just gather up anything that could blow away and secure it in the house or garage, make sure they have gas for the generator, and fill some water jugs to ride out the storm in the calm, cool way they’ve become accustomed to.
I don’t know how you handle storms–the literal or the metaphorical–but I think Jesus sets a strong example for us of how we can choose to handle them.
Calm in the Face of the Storm
We’re in the middle of this series based in Luke looking at what Jesus DID do while He was on earth. This week, we’re in chapter 8 looking at a story you likely know by heart:
One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s get in a boat and go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set sail, and soon Jesus fell asleep. But a fierce wind arose and became a violent squall that threatened to swamp their boat. Alarmed, the disciples woke Jesus up and said, “Master, Master, we’re sinking! Don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
With great authority Jesus rebuked the howling wind and surging waves, and instantly they became calm. Then Jesus said to them, “Why are you fearful? Have you lost your faith in me?”
Luke 8: 23-25 TPT
I’ve heard this story countless times and always been directed to focus on how Jesus calmed the storm when His disciples were freaking out and thinking they were going to die. The application I most frequently hear from this story is the focus on Jesus’s ability to calm the storms in our lives if we trust Him and acknowledge who He is.
While the idea of Jesus calming the storms in our lives is a great lesson, there’s more we can glean from this really cool story. Jesus didn’t just calm the storm; he was calm in the storm. Did you catch that?
Jesus didn’t just calm the storm; he was calm in the storm.
We’ve all probably had the unfortunate luck of being caught in a storm. It makes me laugh every time I visit my parents in the summer in Florida because I swear Floridians react to summer storms the same way Midwesterners react to snow–like the world is ending.
I have seen so many people get so worked up about driving in a storm. They make the entire experience 100 times worse because they freak out instead of approaching the drive and the storm with calm.
The thing is, it isn’t just literal storms. Metaphorical storms can have the same effect on us. How much better would our experiences in these storms be if we adopted Jesus’s attitude of calmness during these storms?
I’ve had the unfortunate privilege of living through multiple tragedies and traumas in my life, and I can tell you the people who will calmly respond to tragedy and the people I avoid because of their chaotic responses. I can tell you the people who will sit with me supportively, those who will spring to action and get things done, and those who will run around like chickens with their heads cut off and make things exponentially worse.
Consequently, when my loved ones are faced with trauma, tragedy, or really any type of storm in their lives, I want to be the calming presence who can hold space and get things done and not the person who adds to the chaos.
I think this is an important lesson for us to take away from this story and one we tend to overlook.
Calming the Storm
The obvious reading of this story is the lesson of how Jesus calms the literal storm. While I think it would be really cool to be able to calm literal storms in the world, I’m pretty confident I’m never going to be able to do that.
This isn’t to say, though, we can’t calm the metaphorical storms in the world instead of contributing to them.
How much different would this story be if the disciples woke Jesus up from His nap and instead of calming the storm, He was just like, “Meh–let’s wait it out?” Or what if He said, “You have no faith, watch this!” and he proceeded to make the storm worse? What if He freaked out, lost his cool, and made things worse by frantically inducing panic by telling them they might all die in the storm?
It’s kind of funny to think about it, isn’t it? Because we know who Jesus is, and we know how the story ends. It’s not so funny, though, when we think about how we react in the face of storms–whether they’re our storms or our loved ones’ storms.
We find solace in how Jesus calms the storm and how He can calm our storms, but we bristle a little at the idea of following His example and calming the storms in our world.
Right now in my community, there is uproar and outrage over the state removing flashing warning lights before a stop light on a heavily traveled state route. Admittedly, I enjoy grabbing some popcorn and reading the comments on the many, many social media posts for the entertainment value. However, the more I read the posts and comments, the more frustrated and angry I get because people are so out of control, outraged, outrageous, and committed to stirring the pot.
I understand we can’t expect non-Christians to act like Christians, but guess what, these aren’t non-Christians. These are people I sit in church with on Sunday mornings and people I know sit in the pews at the churches down the road spewing hate, attacking people they don’t even know, and creating more storms despite the facts and statistics the State has provided–repeatedly.
This behavior isn’t just present on social media (although it is definitely present there all the time). It happens all over the place:
At our jobs
In our churches
On our kids’ sports teams
At the gym
In our book clubs
In our closest relationships
Instead of calming the storm, we add fuel to the fire or exit as quietly as possible.
When we could be the voice of reason, we focus on doomsday scenarios.
When we could sit in the trenches with our friends in storms and offer empathy, we shift the discussion to our own problems and add more stress to their lives.
When we could spring to action and be productive in storms, we offer the “let me know if you need anything.”
When we’re given the details of a storm, we respond with praying hands or the “I’ll be praying for you” text.
This is a hard one, isn’t it?
And, I’d be lying to you if I told you I had this all figured out and acted perfectly in every storm I’ve ever faced or every storm I’ve walked through with my loved ones. I’ve done it wrong plenty of times, and I’m desperately trying to learn from my mistakes.
You know those sermons where you sit there with your arms crossed the entire time because you don’t really want to hear what the pastor is saying but you know God is trying to get through to you? I think this topic is one of those for so many of us.
Friend, if you struggle with this, I pray you’ll think about Jesus calming the storm this week when you’re faced with:
Social Media Posts you don’t agree with
Media Bias
Political Ads
Gossip
Church Drama
Workplace Stress
Soccer Moms
I imagine the world would be a much different place if each of us chose to calm the storms instead of adding fuel to them, don’t you?
Reflections:
How do you react when storms come up in your life?
What do you do when you’re faced with storms in your loved ones’ lives?
How can you pause and attempt to calm these storms in the future?
