September 2nd, 2021
By Bill Yerkes
In the eye of the storm, You remain in control
And in the middle of the war, You guard my soul
You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn
Your love surrounds me in the eye of the storm
- Ryan Stevenson
As I write this, I am looking out my office window at a crystal-clear blue sky, with little to no humidity and a cool breeze. This is a stark contrast to yesterday (9/1) when our area was struck with severe storms, spawning tornados that carved a path of destruction.
When I was a child, I was scared to death of storms. In particular, I remember thinking about what it would be like to experience a tornado. When I started to fear the possibility of one, my parents would say, “you don’t need to worry about that here, we never see such storms.” Many times throughout my childhood when I became afraid of something, most times, my parents would respond this way. Truth is, we live in an area that has been spared from natural disasters such as this. As a parent, I too have used this same response. However, I can now say I stood at my front door and watched the car shake in the driveway as we experienced our first sizable earth tremor. And with my adult children, we watched videos of our first ever tornado not far from where we live.
When it comes to life’s storms, our heavenly Father would love to be able to wrap his arms around us and say, “you will never have to worry about experiencing those things.” But we know, many times throughout life we will experience moments for which we are not prepared, moments we never thought would be our reality, and moments when we just feel like we don’t know what to do or how to respond.
Whenever I experience moments such as this, I put myself in the shoes of the disciples on the boat with Jesus during the storm. I imagine what it would be like to be frantic, only to realize the Savior of the world is resting right beside me. In Mark 4:39 Jesus says to the wind and the waves, “Quiet! Be still!”
Whatever you are going through right now, the Savior of the world is right beside you. Like the disciples, when you see a storm; He will remind you of your faith. When you are distracted by what is going on around you, He will be focused only on you. When you find yourself overcome, He says… “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
In the eye of the storm, You remain in control
And in the middle of the war, You guard my soul
You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn
Your love surrounds me in the eye of the storm
- Ryan Stevenson
As I write this, I am looking out my office window at a crystal-clear blue sky, with little to no humidity and a cool breeze. This is a stark contrast to yesterday (9/1) when our area was struck with severe storms, spawning tornados that carved a path of destruction.
When I was a child, I was scared to death of storms. In particular, I remember thinking about what it would be like to experience a tornado. When I started to fear the possibility of one, my parents would say, “you don’t need to worry about that here, we never see such storms.” Many times throughout my childhood when I became afraid of something, most times, my parents would respond this way. Truth is, we live in an area that has been spared from natural disasters such as this. As a parent, I too have used this same response. However, I can now say I stood at my front door and watched the car shake in the driveway as we experienced our first sizable earth tremor. And with my adult children, we watched videos of our first ever tornado not far from where we live.
When it comes to life’s storms, our heavenly Father would love to be able to wrap his arms around us and say, “you will never have to worry about experiencing those things.” But we know, many times throughout life we will experience moments for which we are not prepared, moments we never thought would be our reality, and moments when we just feel like we don’t know what to do or how to respond.
Whenever I experience moments such as this, I put myself in the shoes of the disciples on the boat with Jesus during the storm. I imagine what it would be like to be frantic, only to realize the Savior of the world is resting right beside me. In Mark 4:39 Jesus says to the wind and the waves, “Quiet! Be still!”
Whatever you are going through right now, the Savior of the world is right beside you. Like the disciples, when you see a storm; He will remind you of your faith. When you are distracted by what is going on around you, He will be focused only on you. When you find yourself overcome, He says… “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
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