The storm is brewing;
Brewing in the teacup
Brewing on a lake
A storm that scares you
that something will break
A storm in our lives
A storm that shakes
The winds are howling
The waves are high
Some tease and taunt,
Others full of electric-
Intensify!
Some linger a while,
Others quickly pass by.
They can question life,
Throw everything up in the sky
A whirlwind of uncertainty,
Swirling, crushing hopelessness,
Seemingly drowning,
Amid a torrent of anxiety
Just like a tale in ages past,
Which many join the cry and ask
Jesus- what on earth shall we do?
How can you sleep, will we make it through
The night when the fiercest windstorm blew
Waves surrounding,
Gaining uncontrollable height
As the might of the gales
Raging within my soul
Blurs everything else from sight
Except the lightning flash!
In a sky as black as a ream of coal
But Jesus awoke and rebuked the storm
The storm in a teacup
The storm on a lake
Storms that scare
And storms that shake
The winds instantly died down,
The waves levelled low
From a raging tempest,
To deep calm, blissful slow
With instant and utter authority
He teaches waves how to behave.
He commands the wind, the rain and the snow.
And more than that,
The same Jesus, the Jesus I know
Is with me, and in me, and NEVER goes.
My soul no longer in distress
My soul in him alone, finds rest.
The peace of all peace
The hope of all hope.
Some years later, another storm arose,
This time a shipwreck- certainly posed
But Paul was inside and he knew the Lord
He called everyone together,
everyone on board.
They ate a meal and together broke bread,
They gave thanks and prayed. Calm instead
Of calamity, like the feast in Psalm 23
A table of refuge laid out
In the middle of the enemy.
That night, every person was saved
Only the boat was lost the waves.
The Peace of all Peace,
The Hope of all Hope
The rock that is solid,
Not thrown off to the left or the right
Though wind and waves
may obscure your sight.
Nothing can ensnare you,
Because Christ is there
and he stands for you
He is the Prince of Peace,
The Bringer of Hope,
Trust in the Lord and you will cope
Not because there won’t be any storms,
Nor because you are strong
Or can ‘keep calm and carry on’
But because we build our house on the Rock
He is our Foundation that withstands
And can command storms to stop.
No matter, the tempest-
He’ll bring us safely back,
Into the haven of the dock
I wrote this poem last month a few days before I even knew anything about Hurricane Sandy. Although, if you've been affected by the storms, I pray you'd know God's closeness and peace as he walks with you through the inevitable steps of cleaning up, rebuilding and restoring.
At the beginning, the tone sets the storm brewing and building up, tapping into the frightening reality of storms in our lives and how things happening around us can deeply impact and resonate within us as well. that brew in our lives, without ignoring and belittling the devastating effects, but acknowledges them in two stories;
The first from Luke chapter 8, where Jesus and his disciples are in a boat, Jesus falls asleep and they are caught in a fierce windstorm and the disciples (some of which are experienced fishermen) are petrified, in panic, thinking they are going to die. Until Jesus stood up and spoke to the storm and it stopped! Just like that!
The second story takes a different route, Paul was held as a prisoner, being transported across the sea to stand trial, when the shipwreck hit, Paul already knew God's peace and didn't lose faith like the disciples and again everyone survived (In fact Paul survived 3 shipwrecks) but the storm and the shipwreck was not stilled.
Sometimes storms build and then instantly changes; breakthrough, peace... and we praise God,
but other times God does not take away the storms, but he holds us, carries us, leads us through. Sometimes it may feel lonely and you feel like you are facing the storm head on, but God promises never to leave us and its then he's at our back, helping us push through.
In Psalm 77, there is a verse that talks about God's path going through the mighty waters, So in these times, even though we'd rather avoid difficult circumstances altogether, we need to praise God and trust in his ways, finding refuge in God's peace, that is not dependant on circumstance, but that He, the Prince of Peace gives us freely.
