Navigating Storms with a Capital “S”

This has been a rainy week.

Literally. Grass is getting green. There are leaves budding on the trees. The iris plants in our back yard are blooming. It really is a beautiful time of year. What makes all of this beauty possible? Rain. What brings rain? Big dark scary clouds.

We all love rain. We pray for rain. Some cultures do rain dances. But truth be told, very people actually like to be out in the rain while its coming down. Rain is cold. It makes us shiver. Clouds are dark and looming. Clouds are gray – no one ever picks gray as their favorite color.

Joseph (the one that had the coat of many colors) faced a storm. A seven year famine was coming with the potential to kill thousands upon thousands of people. Pretty big storm.

He had a plan. He responded to what what happening – to what God had put into action. God allowed him to navigate the storm. That same God will help us navigate our storms.

I preached on this last week. Give it a listen if you have a few minutes. Here’s the link.

Rain makes beautiful things grow. Don’t forget that when your skies are gray.

Stay the Course

“Staying the course” is a sailing term (I think). Ocean goers used to navigate by the stars and the sun. It must have been kinda tricky to learn to navigate by the sky (personally I like Google Earth, MapQuest, and my on-board GPS in our car), but once you learned it, you always had the sky. Sort of.

Imagine trying to steer a ship during a storm. The sky is always there, but during a storm, you can’t see the sun or the stars. Add to that the fact that the wind probably constantly changes direction, your boat was probably doing it’s best roller-coaster imitation, and your lunch is
trying to get out of Dodge fast.

I’ve never been on the sea in a storm, but I imagine the only real tools you have to work with are your compass and the helm (the big steering wheel thingy for you landlubbers). You have to constantly check your compass to make sure you’re headed in the right direction, then correct your direction by turning the helm if you’ve got off course. Then re-check your compass. This would have been an ongoing process during any storm.

If you talk to anyone in our community right now, they’d say our town’s in the middle of a storm. I’ve never felt more hurt, fear, anxiety, and doom-and-gloom from people around here. People have forgotten what course they should be on. Our town needs to be reminded that tough, smart, motivated, proactive, driven people pioneered this area… and that those kinds of people still fill this town and need to re-emerge. Once we get our bearings back, we’ll be alright.

My fellow Jesus followers must remember that Jesus calms storms, but he let the disciples sweat it for a little while. I think losing our lunch on the roller-coaster waves is part of the process God wants us to experience: it won’t kill us, it’s not fun, it makes us stronger by proving to us (again) that Jesus is the only one that can calm the storm.

Our church is on a course towards grace, openness, vulnerability, and authenticity (what I’m convinced is the New Testament ideal). It’s a slow trek, but that’s where God’s taking us.

God is moving in our community in a significant way. It’s our job to stay the course and let him move the ship.