It's the storms of life
that prove the strength of our Anchor.
Life is hard.
And you probably don't need a blog post to tell you that. I know.
A pancreatic cancer diagnosis is like that. Hard. And how do you walk it out? Reason it through? Come to grips with it, even a little bit?
Would you be surprised if I told you that maybe you can't... Sometimes there are no words when life is this cruel. When mothers are stricken with terminal cancers, and brothers are taken too young, and spouses lose the fight... What if life is just too hard. And the storms just overwhelm? And there are no answers...
We've felt that way. And in a grace-gift, my mornings devotion reminded me that we're not alone... For the disciples surely didn't seem to have a handle on the storm that nearly swamped them...
35 That day when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
Mark 4:35-41
We see it too. These storms... they can just swamp us. It's not the cloudy, overcast days. Or the chilly winds that blow in.
The storms that send us scrambling for cover and quivering with fear can come up like a "furious squall"... the disciples felt it. That panicky, overwhelming desperation... the terrifying fight to stay alive, even while the waves break over you in a relentless, overpowering torrent.
And yet, the moment the disciples called on Jesus, the storm broke. The wind and waves obedient to His voice. Perfect peace descended where once was fear and chaos.
In the midst of our cancer storm, when the waves of pain and horror and grief threatened to take us under, when our questions keened the heavens...He was there.
And we learned that no storm is big enough to prevent God from accomplishing His will. To draw us in out of the tempest, holding us close in Grace, replacing fear with Peace and pouring Mercy over the heartache.
Perhaps that is why we have no answer for these storms, for when life is hard. We were never supposed to have the answer.
It is Jesus alone who Anchors our storm-tossed souls. Who gives Perfect Peace to the grieving heart. Who Calms in the fiercest of gales.
He is the answer. Always, Jesus.
May you find a calm in the center of your storm this night,
that comes from resting wholly in the Strength of your Anchor.
His Hold is Forever and Always.
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