Calming the Storms of Life

April 21, 2025

In 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico hard with flood waters. At the same time, Maria, a 34-year-old single mom in San Juan, had battled heroin addiction for a decade. She was estranged from her two children after losing a custody fight. The flood waters filled her apartment with knee-deep water, destroying her heroine. Which storm was worse, the water in her apartment or the storm raging in her soul? She prayed for the first time since childhood, clutching a Bible from a neighbor and A rescue team from a local church saved her. Their pastor offered her a spot in their recovery program. Sobered by the storm’s wake-up call, Maria stayed clean. Her life was turning around, all the flood waters were receding and she reconciled with her kids. She jokes, “God sent a flood to wash my sins, and my furniture!”

The Bible uses the imagery of storms to teach us that our lives will be filled with trials. Floods will come. Count on it! Life is hard, and it is not always fair. In Mark 4:35-41, we have the story of Jesus calming the storm. You will note in vs. 35, that Jesus sends his disciples into the storm. Jesus will do that, because He loves us too much to leave us where He finds us. He knows that if we could always decide the course of our life, there would be no storms. No Not One! We don’t like them, and we often get mad at God when we must go through them.

Jesus uses these storms to make us stronger, not in ourselves, but in our faith. There are some storms that we cannot navigate on our own wisdom, courage and strength. These are the storms that have eternal consequences: life and death, love and hatred, forgiveness and grudges, courage and cowardice, to name a few. When these storms hit us, hopefully, we have allowed Jesus to teach us in the smaller storms, so we are ready to completely trust in Him in these great storms.

In vs. 38, we see that the storm has hit hard, but Jesus is asleep in the front of the boat. Remember, four of his disciples are fishermen. They know the Sea of Galilee and they know how to navigate storms, and they are scared for their lives as well. In response to their fear, they wake Jesus up, accusing Him of not caring. This is such a common response to life’s storms. We rely on our own wits and wisdom, becoming more frantic as our life struggle overwhelms us all the more, then, maybe, we cry out to Jesus to help us at the last moment. When the boat is half full of water, we have run out of options, and we scream, “Jesus, don’t You care???”

He does care. He cares more than we will ever understand, because He loves us with an infinite, unconditional love we can barely understand. But He has also given us free will, and lets us choose. The choice is and can be a hard one. Will we run into the arms of Jesus, or will we run away? If we have been learning to trust Jesus with everything, then the chances we will run into His arms go way up when the great flood hits our life. If we have put Jesus on the shelf, knowing, hoping, He will be there when we need Him, chances are not as good that we will trust Him, and run into His arms. Chances are better that we will get mad at Him for letting the flood waters come into our lives, and in our anger, we run away, only to find that on our own, we are more likely to drown.

In vs. 39, Jesus calms the storm. It is not a big deal for Him to do so. There is nothing He cannot do, except if we use our free will to limit His power in our lives. Then it is as if He is asleep in the front of the boat that is our lives. Remember, Jesus sent His disciples into the storm to make them better disciples. He will do the same with you and I so we will be better disciples as well.

In Mark 4:40 we read, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Do you have the faith to weather whatever storm you are facing in life? How has Jesus prepared you for that storm? Is your faith mature enough to know when it is time to pray, or time to act, or time to wait on the Lord? Do you trust the Lord with everything? Let Jesus be the captain of your boat of life, so you will always be ready for any storm. (To learn more about Al Earley or read previous articles, see www.lagrangepres.org. You can purchase my book, My Faith Journal, at Amazon.com, a compilation of 366 articles as a daily devotional).