Sometimes You Need a Storm

               No one asks for a storm, especially in the fishing season when everyone is already tired, but storms come anyway.  The wind, gusting to 50 mph much of the day, is forecast to continue through the rest of the week. 

I am glad, at least for this:

The wail of wind has peeled the skein of rain

and fog that greyed our every day this week.

We learn so much.

Boats teach us to seek shelter.

The grass and trees teach us how to stand:

No, for this, bend low, love the ground. 

The ground is enough to hold us.

My son and daughter and their crew come in

from the nets soaked and exhausted

from bending low, with no ground to catch them,

only water.

I hope to be with them tonight, 

out on the water in the storm 

because I am afraid not of danger

but of too much safety, too much comfort.

I am afraid of forgetting how precious it is

to fight back and bear the storm, 

to measure again just how small we are against 

the ocean and force of gale  . . . 

We bend, we nearly break. 

We are shrunken from the fight,

but we know how good it is to live,

to come into a warm house and table.

But there is more yet to do in a storm.

My two youngest stayed in

this morning, but who can waste that wind?  

Out on the spit, they began a new art, 

Wind Sculpture,

And they lured the Wind Wraith from his cave as well.

So many uses for this glorious storm!

But in the hands of God there are more. The winds come with purpose:


" . . . pursue them with Your tempest
and terrify them with Your storm.
 Cover their faces with shame

so that they will seek Your name Yahweh."



Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and He brought them out of their distress.
He stilled the storm to a murmur,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet.
Then He guided them to the harbor they longed for.


"It is good for me that I have been afflicted,

That I may learn Your statutes."

Dear Friend, 
I pray you strength and peace 
for whatever storms you face this week. 
Do not refuse them. 
God is at work. 
Ride the ones you can with
a sail and with joy. 
Wait and wail, lie low and listen
in the ones that terrify.
He will meet you there.
He means to make us choose:
Death or life.

Do you hear Him?

What will you choose?