Gary Miller

  I don’t exactly remember how my phobia came about, and even though it doesn’t incapacitate me, I still pause when I’m confronted with its likelihood. My phobia? Thunderstorms. I really don’t think it was a childhood struggle. I assume at that time in my life I had enough sense to get in out of the rain. But I think that it happened when I was a young adult and thought that I was with the “in” crowd…….. those who were independent, invincible, and indestructible. Only a lesser man would allow a storm to keep him off the lake. And if one began to brew, it would stay far enough away to keep from hindering the area I was fishing in. The first time that I was caught in one, I was humbled by its scope but thought that it could never happen again. So I remained undeterred. The second one caused me to repent for sins that I had never committed. I promised God that if I ever made it through this night that I would never be caught on the lake again. I further promised that if I even saw the first sign of an ensuing storm I would fire up the big engine and head straight for the dock. The third, and last one, did the trick. Even though I made it out alive, I now owe God two years in a Hungarian monastery, four years of mission work in a remote part of the rain forest, 90 percent of my income, and the son of my first child. Now you understand why I don’t like storms. My wife wants to set in a porch swing when one blows up. I want to hide under said swing.

   In the Bible when Jesus calmed the storms, He always did it by proclaiming “peace.” It became understood that the opposite of a storm was peace. Later He taught that storms and peace could actually coincide together. He taught that one could actually have peace in the middle of the storm; that even though there may be turmoil on the outside, there can be peace on the inside. But how did He teach this lesson? It did it by showing there was One who had more power than the storm.

   Maybe you are going through a storm right now. It may have you scared and hiding. It may be keeping you awake at night, wondering if the end is near. Now is the time to remember that there is One who has control over your storm, and He is stronger than it as well. Peace will come if you will take your eyes away from the storm and put them on the One who is bigger than it. Isaiah, speaking of God, put it this way; “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” Keep your eyes on the Lord and Lord will keep His eyes on your storm.