He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” Mark 4:39
It came in hard and fast. Last week the weather people said we were going to have some severe weather…and they were right. The storms were due to roll in sometime Wednesday afternoon. The threats were heavy rain, high winds, large hail, and the possibility of a tornado or two. It turned out that we had all four. The sky slowly grew darker and as it did, most of the staff and a couple of families looking for a safe place to ride out the storm gathered in the basement hallway of our church. Me? Well, I was working on a sermon and since I was near the end…I kept on working.
Well, I finally finished the sermon and the storm decided to quit messing around and get serious. Did I go to the hallway? Of course not! Instead, I went upstairs so I could see what was going on. I did it under the guise of being a good leader and watching out for the people. Truthfully, I was just curious…perhaps too curious for my own good. Regardless, I got to see the show. As the forces of nature displayed their fury, I watched and marveled at the power and majesty of God. When I thought that my Dearest Daddy was both creator and controller of such power…I marveled at this majesty. It was just about then that something happened that caused me to wonder about something else.
So, the wind is blowing at least fifty or sixty miles an hour, the rain is almost horizontal, and hail is hitting the ground and then I see something. There was a guy (and yes, it was a guy) riding his bicycle in the middle of the worst of the storm—straight into the wind, the rain, and the hail. The question obviously was, “What in the world was he thinking?” The probable answer is he probably wasn’t. While my decision to watch the storm may have been a bit crazy, riding a bike in the storm and into the storm was more than a little crazy.
The truth is we will never know what he was thinking that caused him to do what he did but what we can do is learn. If we learn we can make a good decision, a better decision the next time a storm comes blowing in our way. Remember the best decision is always putting your faith and trust in the Maker and Master of the storms. A song puts it this way, “My boat of life sails on a troubled sea, ever there’s a wind in my sail. But I have a friend who watches over me when the breeze turns into a gale. I know the Master of the wind; I know the Maker of the rain. He can calm the storm and make the sun shine again. I know the Master of the wind.”
We can’t always avoid the storms, but we can choose to trust the Master of the wind. He is a strong shelter like no other. One time Jesus and His disciples were in a boat when a great storm came upon them. The disciples were terribly afraid, so they wisely went to Jesus and He spoke to the storm and said, “Silence! Be still!” And just like that—it did. He is the Master of the wind. So, if you know Him you never have to fear the storms of life. After all, “He’s got this.” Bro. Dewayne