Calming the Storms 6-8-08
As I sit here writing this article, there is a “severe thunderstorm” in progress – the latest in a string of storms that have buffeted the mid-Atlantic region (especially Calvert County) and that have even produced tornados and massive rainfall. I have come from my kitchen, where I was looking up through the windows into the darkened night sky enjoying a tremendous light show as lightening literally flashed the clouds into brilliance. While this particular storm is fairly small, it still displays the awesome power at work on this planet – power that displays the creator’s hand.
I am constantly amazed at the relative ease with which atheists and other non-Christians at the same time promote mankind to having godlike power and relegate him to insignificance. They say that man is causing widespread climatic changes on the earth, affecting everything from global mean temperatures to the breeding patterns of owls. And man is doing this while also being an insignificant blip on an evolutionary path that is absolutely ironclad provable (except for the incredible lack of evidence and the need to take the entire theory on blind faith). Amazingly, my car burning 15-18 gallons of gasoline a week is wrecking the planet, but the sun “burning” 4 billion kilograms of mass per second is said to not be an influence in any temperature changes on the earth (let’s not even get into the increase in the luminosity of the sun). It cannot be the sun, because man cannot be blamed for that.
Man is given the powers of godhood in determining what is right and what is wrong. There cannot be absolutes, because that would be imposing right and wrong on someone else. Of course, all of this is meaningless because in the end, man is an aberration in the universe, a cancer on the planet that kills off more deserving species and chops down trees. So man is again all-powerful and insignificant. Amazingly insane.
I started talking about the storm that I was witnessing. In today’s society we see storms brewing all around us. We see homosexuals portrayed as the pinnacle of decency. We see abortion proponents hailed as champions of freedom. We see child molesters and serial killers defended as victims. All of this while Islam, most notable for bloodthirsty killers, is depicted as the religion of peace. And the church of our Lord is paralyzed by a combination of ignorance and apathy: ignorance because God’s people refuse to take it upon themselves to read his word; apathy because God’s people are so enthralled by their worldly lives that they do not realize that there is a problem with accepting homosexuality, abortion, corrupted justice, and other religions.
There are storms all around us. But that is nothing new, as the disciples of Jesus have been in the storm before.
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mark 4:35-41 NIV)
We have to remember that the same Jesus who calmed the storm on the sea of Galilee can also calm the storms in our lives. The question is not whether or not Jesus can calm the storms in our lives, or even if he will. The question that is placed before each of us is the same that was placed before the disciples on that boat: do you trust Jesus to keep you safe in the storm?
-Charles Peterson