Monday Morning Moments

Staying Focused in the Storm

It was a beautiful, sunny summer day. and the camp our nine-year-old daughter, Erin, was attending had decided it was a perfect day to canoe across the lake. The day was running along nicely, and after lunch all campers and leaders boarded their canoes and started heading back to camp. While they were out in the middle of the lake, a terrible storm blew in out of nowhere. It was a hailstorm and rainstorm like no other. I remember it well because I was with my other daughter, Amanda, having lunch at a coffee shop.Looking out the window, we could not get over how dark the day turned and how quickly the storm came. It was a severe and damaging storm that resulted in car dealerships having to put in insurance claims for damage. My mother’s heart had immediately thought of Erin but never imagined that Erin was out in this storm. Amanda and I were going to take refuge in the coffee shop and then head back to camp.

When we had returned to camp, unaware that Erin had been out on the lake, the last canoe had just been accounted for. All campers were safely onshore; the tears, the fears, the excitement, the hugging, and the thankfulness were loud and buzzing. As we were listening to the stories, one little girl said to me, “It was so bad and we were so scared, and we started to pray,”and then she paused and said with a trembling voice, “and when we started to pray, it got worse!”

Oh, how often does this happen? We take a stand, we pray, we hand it over to God, and we claim our absolute trust in Him, and then, because we are impatient or expect the prayer to be answered immediately, we start to flounder when it isn’t. We begin to doubt God and fear as the raging storm, whichseems more powerful than God, is surrounding us.

We cannot forget, while the storm rages on, that God is not only with us but is using the storm to grow us. The Bible associates many storms with spiritual growth. We see this in Matthew 14:22–23. When Peter found himself in the middle of a storm, there was fear, but Jesus was there. When Peter focused and fixed his eyes on Christ, he was drawing nearer to Him; but when Peter focused on the storm, he began to be overwhelmed with fear and sink. Where are you fixing your eyes in your storms?