“Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, “Quiet! Settle down!” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?” (Mark 4:39-40 The Message Bible)
One of my younger son’s and his family stopped by last Saturday, in town for a wedding. We met them at a nearby restaurant for lunch. My daughter who lives in town was going to meet us, but she had a more important task. She took her son to cast his first vote. She let us know that she would meet us at the house. At this point you are probably saying that this is such a mundane story. Actually there was much excitement. So don’t get bored yet. Read on.
Just when we had finished lunch, my daughter called and said she was at the house. I told her we would be there in a minute. The restaurant was not that far away. When we get to our street, we see my adult grandchild getting back in the car. After pulling in the garage, I thought they would be walking at the door. But they were sitting in the car. Do you want to know why? They were most likely resting. For when they pulled up in front of the house, they saw large bags of leaves being blown down the street by 50-60 miles and hour wind gusts. I assumed they were sitting in the car, recuperating from the unexpected workout, chasing non-cooperating bags of leaves that seemed to be intentionally evasive.
When they get out of the car, the bags start blowing into the street again. Daughter and granddaughter, and me, we start chasing the bags that once again were trying to escape down the street, carried by the strong winds. If we were an animated film, the bags would be smiling and laughing at our attempt to tackle them like a pro football defensive end. Finally, thinking we had resolved the problem, we went into the house and joined the rest of the family. My daughter asked if we should move them in the garage, move 27 bags of leaves into the garage. Well, you know me and my everything has a place, and there is a place for everything way of thinking. So, I said, “Nah! They will be alright!” If I ever was wrong about something, it was about underestimating how frequent the winds would keep on blowing in a fierce way. Was I ever so very, very wrong!
As we are sitting in the living room, I look out the window and the relentless, strong winds had blown the leaves back into the street again! Without hesitation, our “team,” expanded by my out-of- town guests, rushed to get the runaway bags of leaves. We captured them all and went with the original recommendation. We put them in the garage. The winds kept on blowing, but we had found a solution that worked.
Is there a point to this story, you ask. Yes! When the winds keep on blowing in your life, winds that try to displace things from how they should be; winds that try to displace your peace of mind, winds that displace your tranquility, winds that create discord in your relationships, winds that interrupt with your interactions with others, and winds that make it so that the chaos created by starts to affect others who may not even live in your house, know that you have a solution that works. First, think of the lyrics of the familiar song by Douglas Miller, “Though the storms keep on raging in my life, and sometimes it’s hard to tell the night from day. Still that hope that lies within is reassured, as I keep my eyes upon the distant shore, I know He’ll lead me safely to that blessed place He has prepare.” Then, something you should have done the first time, just like I should have listened about putting the leaves in the garage, follow good advice and call on the Lord to help you. The Lord, He is our solution! The Lord, He will bring about peace! The Lord, He will cause the winds to cease blowing in your life. Come on now! You know from experience, but if you don’t, you do now! Jesus will step in and when Jesus steps in when the winds are blowing, He will shut them up and you can sail on through life. And when the next fierce wind comes, make sure you call on the Lord! Go ahead, play Douglas Miller’s song! And then give thanks for the Lord for all the times past, present, and future that He will calm the calamity, shut up the storms in your life, and allow you to keep on traveling to that peaceful shore. Remember this! Like the fall season will go by and a new season will begin, without the blowing winds, there is a new season we will face with its own type of winds. However, we can look forward to with great optimism to yet a new season, a season where the storms of life will one day be no more, for an eternity! Have a wonderful Wednesday! Be blessed!
“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18 The Message Bible)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King