Jonah VI (In the Storm)
Jonah 1
4)But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
I remember a day that is one of those days, that you remember the rest of your life. I was sitting in a waiting room at the hospital with my father. My mother was having exploratory surgery because the doctors couldn’t diagnose why my mother was having pain and digestive issues. It was what seemed like another day. There wasn’t a great deal of stress about the surgery. It was about 30 mins into the surgery, and me and my dad were just shooting the breeze, when all of a sudden my mom’s surgeon came walking into the waiting room, very grim faced. “Can you come with me please?” he asked, so we got up, now feeling pretty nervous, and walked to a type of consulting room near the operating room. He had a diagram on the door of the inside of the human body. He said “When I opened her up, I found cancer everywhere!” and he proceeded to put his hand on this diagram to demonstrate how it was attached to every organ in my mother’s body. Like Jonah, I could suddenly feel a great wind begin to blow and the tempests were overwhelming me. My life, in an instant, was rocked and flipped upside down and every which way and the day she went to be with Jesus, every belief that I was raised with, who I thought God was, everything I thought I was, was eternally changed!
God allows things to happen in our lives for a reason. God allows us to go through persecution, betrayal, times of loneliness, and yes, even allows us and those we love to suffer and die for what seems like “no good reason”. The moment my mother died, I knew that God has a higher plan that is so much greater than my feeble mind could wrap itself around. It was greater than the “faith” I had to believe for her to be healed. It was greater than the things I used to comfort myself. He was more in control and greater than I could ever imagine, or honestly wanted Him to be. The wind and waves were stronger than my ability to struggle against. I was helpless in the tempest. I felt like I was dying inside, and in all actuality, I was. I was dying to the ways of the past so that I could become alive in the truth of who He is and who I am in Him.
You may be in a tempest right now. You may not understand why. You may be without hope today. I want you to know today that God is there. God allowed the tempest to come for a reason. I know it hurts like hell and feels like you are in hell, but God is accomplishing something greater within you than you can imagine. He is revealing Himself in a way that you can only see in the midst of suffering, pain, rejection, and loss.
1 Corinthians 13:11-12
11)When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12)For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
We see life through smudged and stained glasses. We rarely understand that God does work all things for our good, no matter how bad they are. No matter how desperate they are. No matter how dark the day is. He is doing something exceedingly, abundantly, beyond all you could ask or think to ask for (Ephesians 3:20)
If you need prayer, I would be glad to stand with you. You can leave a comment or email me through the link on this page.
As always, thanks for reading.
Kevin
