I Have Weathered the Storm

My father-in-law, as my mother-in-law often says, was not a safety-conscious man. My wife has told me enough near-death stories to make me agree. Many of them were water related, since he loved to fish, and they spent a lot of time on the lakes. One of my wife's stories involved her being jerked off a rubber raft right before it went over a small waterfall Bob was fishing over. (He took great joy in the fact not one piece of bait spilled.) One of his other antics brought a Bible story to life. In this version, it was he and two of his brothers on Lake Erie in a boat that was definitely not designed for large waves. His brother Ron said the waves were close to 10 feet tall, and it being the first week of December (!?), there was no one around to help if things went awry. (Which they did.) The waves were taller than the boat, and the only choice they had was to drive straight into the waves at full throttle, hoping the boat cleared the peak. They managed to all get to shore and survived (and, according to Ron, catch one eight-pound walleye), but none of them signed up for a repeat trip. (Hey ... who got to keep the walleye???)

I imagine it was similar to the disciples freaking out on the sea as the storm tossed the boat and Jesus was sleeping. Who sleeps during that kind of storm?! Anyone in their right mind, it seems, would be hollering out for God to deliver them from the sure death to come like Bob and his brothers did on the Lake Erie fishing expedition. The freaking out and fear actually seems pretty rational, when you are just a regular person trying to steer a boat that seems ill equipped for the waves it is facing.

Life does that. The storms come out of nowhere. The waves are scary and often seem much larger than our capacity to navigate them without dying. Jesus seems to be taking a nap as we scream out for assistance. Many days look as though there is no way we will survive the storm. This song starts out asking what we have asked so many times: "How on earth will we survive this???" Then by the end of the song, it is echoing what we have said on the other side of many storms of our own: "WE MADE IT!" And you often find it was not about the circumstances at all, as much as it was a deepening realization that no matter what happens, we are safe.

Jesus will get us through the storm. He commands the waves, and they do not phase Him one bit.

To listen to this song, click below: