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A great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat. She’d finally had enough of the yelling, the screaming, the verbal abuse, and it reached a point where she could no longer guarantee the safety of her children. “Get out!” She screamed. And as he slammed the door behind him, the tears welled up in her eyes, and she crumpled to the floor, sobbing. A great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat. It was the moment he’d been dreading for years. The cancer he thought had gone away, had snuck up on him again. Now he was facing new rounds of chemo, more painful radiation, surgery, and doctors still couldn’t guarantee that this would do the trick. The cancer, it seems, had its grip on him and wasn’t letting go. A great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat. There it was, the envelope sitting in the mailbox. She had applied to her dream college just two months earlier. She hadn’t expected something so soon. Was this good news or bad news? Even if she did get in, it was going to take a miracle to pay for it. She desperately needed scholarship money. She’d put all her eggs in this one basket. If she didn’t get in, she’d spend the next year at Community College, going crazy living under her parents’ roof. After holding the envelope in her hand, she said a silent prayer, and opened the envelope. It started, “We regret to inform you…” She didn’t get in. A great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat. “Teacher, wake up! Don’t you know we are perishing?” The danger of life is all around us and sometimes it strikes painfully close. Sometimes those windstorms swirl round and round and knock us down. Sometimes those waves beat into us so hard that we just can’t take it anymore. Jesus, are you aware? Jesus, do you even care? Or are you just off somewhere sleeping on the job, resting so hard that you’re not doing anything to help us? Jesus, don’t you care that we are dying down here?!?” Do you ever feel like this? I do. I do in my own life with my own problems. And I feel this way even more as I hear your stories…your stories of divorce, of cancer, of disappoint and heartbreak and unbelievable stress. This is exactly how Job felt. He was a righteous man, had a great family life, had done really well for himself financially. All was well and good, until he started to lose it all. His bank accounts & retirement funds were wiped out when a band of outlaws carried off all of his livestock and killed all his servants. That same day, all his children died when the house they were in collapsed. Soon after that, Job began to loose his health…he developed a painful skin rash that covered him from head to foot and wouldn’t stop oozing and itching. God, don’t you care that I’m dying. His friends saw what was happening and kept telling him that God had abandon him, that God was cursing him, that God had somehow hung him out to dry. Job wallowed in his suffering and he cursed the day he was born. He whined, he moaned, he got depressed, and he got angry. While he never really said it, he had to be thinking, “God, are you aware of what’s going on? God, do you even care?” For 37 chapters, God lets this whining and self pity and anger go on. For 37 chapters God is silent, seemingly asleep in the bottom of the boat. For 37 chapters, God listens and says and does nothing. But in chapter 38, that all changes. A great windstorm arose, and Job probably felt like the waves were beating him…but this time it was the very voice of God that spoke in that windstorm. The very voice of God finally responded from within the raging whirlwind. God had indeed been listening the entire time and now it was time for the response. Job, you can’t possibly understand what is going on here, but trust me, I am bigger than all this. Trust me, I’m still with you. God doesn’t come at him with answers & solutions & relief from his suffering…but God does take him seriously. God comes to him from within the storm, hangs in there with him, and says, “I’m still with you.” Hundreds of years later, there’s another windstorm, this one on the Sea of Galilee. Again, it seemed like God was asleep under the boat, Jesus just dreaming away, while his faithful followers were dying up above. They were scared for their lives. They thought they were doomed. Teacher, wake up! Don’t you care that we are perishing? And in the midst of that storm, Jesus responds. He goes up to be with the disciples. Peace, be still. And the winds ceased. The waves died down, and there was a dead calm. Does Jesus care? At that point, the disciples had no idea what a foolish question that was. Hundreds of years later, another windstorm. This one a storm of divorce, a storm of cancer, a storm of rejection, of loneliness, of addiction. Does Jesus care that WE are perishing? My friends, he cares so much that he goes to the cross for you. He cares so much that he let people drive nails through his hands. He cares so much that he let someone stab him in the side. He cares so much that he hung on a cross and died for you. Does Jesus even care? Yes! He screams. Yes! Can’t you see, I’m dying for you? Can’t you see, I’m dying WITH you? Can’t you see? Peace, be still, and see how much I love you. Does God care? It’s a serious question we all ask from time to time, and God’s response may not be what we want or what we expect, but his response is always yes! Its not “Yes, and I’ll fix it.” But its more of a “Yes, I’m with you.” God’s response is relationship with you. His response is found in the cross. His response is to suffer with you, suffer for you, and to ultimately raise you up. The storms rage all around us. If you’re not in one right now, there’s probably one right around the corner, or maybe you’re just in the eye of it right now. But they are there, they are real, and they are terrifying. But know this, Jesus was with those disciples in that storm, and he is with you in your storms as well. I’d like to close by playing a song for you, one that speaks of storms and what may be possible when we find our ourselves being tossed all over the place. It’s by a band called Casting Crowns and its called, “Praise you in the Storm”.
I was sure by now God You would have reached down And wiped our tears away Stepped in and saved the day But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining
As the thunder rolls I barely hear Your whisper through the rain "I'm with you" And as Your mercy falls I raise my hands and praise the God who gives And takes away
And I'll praise You in this storm And I will lift my hands For You are who You are No matter where I am And every tear I've cried You hold in Your hand You never left my side And though my heart is torn I will praise You in this storm
I remember when I stumbled in the wind You heard my cry to you And you raised me up again My strength is almost gone How can I carry on If I can't find You
But as the thunder rolls I barely hear You whisper through the rain "I'm with you" And as Your mercy falls I raise my hands and praise the God who gives And takes away
And I'll praise You in this storm And I will lift my hands For You are who You are No matter where I am And every tear I've cried You hold in Your hand You never left my side And though my heart is torn I will praise You in this storm
I lift my eyes unto the hills Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord The Maker of Heaven and Earth
I lift my eyes unto the hills Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord The Maker of Heaven and Earth
And I'll praise You in this storm And I will lift my hands For You are who You are No matter where I am And every tear I've cried You hold in Your hand You never left my side And though my heart is torn I will praise You in this storm And though my heart is torn I will praise You in this storm
You see, here’s the thing. In both the story of Job & the disciples in the storm, we see one powerful characteristic of our God. He’s big enough to take it from us. He can handle it when we are scared and upset and angry at him. He’s big enough to take whatever we can dish out…and he’s also big enough to see us through whatever storm we may be in. Amen.
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