Surviving the Storms

I have seen memes on social media where people say that in this passage Jesus showed us what to do in a storm—sleep. Well, I know firsthand that is easier said than done. Storms will try your faith. You may have heard or read about my real-life storm, but it is relevant, so I feel led to share it again.

In August 2017, the Weather Channel warned Houston over several days, “A storm is coming! A storm is coming!” The funny thing is, everyone in the Gulf area had sighed with relief when Hurricane Harvey was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm. We figured, “How bad could it be?”

When Harvey actually arrived, that wishful thinking vanished. Having restrengthened to hurricane status, a slow-moving Harvey squatted over our city, dumping up to 60 inches of rainfall across four days and leaving Houston drowned in muddy, brown floodwaters that showed no sign of receding.

Earlier that day, I had watched through our living room window as neighbor after neighbor left with the few belongings they could gather quickly. The water in the street was thigh high. By 2 p.m. the next day, the bayou behind our apartment building was swollen with floodwater. Brackish water sloshed a foot deep onto our patio, and I knew it was time to go. Somebody pounded on our front door, confirming my thoughts: “It’s time to leave!” a voice shouted. “Grab a few things and go!”

I made several calls, and a friend from the church we pastor, Get Wrapped Church, came in a rescue boat to pick us up. Our journey across Houston took a meandering route that day. First a boat, then a van, then another boat, and finally a truck took us to our church building, which would become a major relief distribution center over the next month. As I sat in the rescue boat, my arms around my wife, Ruthy, the irony hit me: the raincoat on my back read, “Noah’s Ark.” It was a gift from a radio station for a show I guest-hosted. Now the full weight of that irony and what we would face in the days ahead settled over me.

“God, I’m going to lose everything,” I murmured into the damp air. His response was a sobering one. The Lord was like, “You are?” We had one carry-on suitcase and one backpack—from what I could tell, that was everything we now owned in the world. But when we returned home three days later, we discovered that while all the apartment buildings around us were flooded, our building was untouched. Our furniture never even got wet. It was all God because everything else around us was underwater.

During that time, I learned a lot about storms that applies to our lives today.

First, storms are unpredictable. You don’t know when they are coming. They are like a surprise party for someone who hates surprises.

Next, many storms are unavoidable. Unless you have plenty of advance warning, you cannot always avoid the storm or its effects. You must tap into your faith and trust God to carry you through it, as He protected us in Houston.

Third, never forget that Jesus is in the boat with you. You can scream, cry, and pray, but God expects you to believe He will get you through it. There is a point where the Lord expects us to release fear and fully embrace faith in Christ. Jesus expects you to spend enough time with Him and know enough scriptures to understand that He will never leave or forsake you.

Finally, God wants you to know that He can completely calm every storm you face. Therefore, you can confidently sleep through the storm because God is with you. No matter how loud the winds howl or how hard the rain pours down, Jesus is right there with you and will keep you safe in the midst of it all, just as He has promised.

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