He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

Mark 4:39

This past week has been challenging for so many in my region. A derecho storm blew its way through the area along with excessive heat waves. This is not news. We have all felt the affects of that wind and the days in which there was not enough to blow the heat away. I was out in the country alone in someone else’s home during the storm and I was afraid. It sounded as if hell was breaking loose outside. It was dark and loud and violent.

Not only has that physical storm been on my mind this week, but also the storm that goes on in my mind. The inner storm probably will not end until I can learn to forgive myself for things I wish I could change but cannot. There are parts of the past year that I wish I could change, I wish I could redo, but I do not have the power to do that. I do not even have the power to calm the inner storm, let alone the ones that rage outside.

This morning, I listened to a message on Mark 4 in the Bible. I also looked at Mark 6. In both passages, Jesus calms the wind, the great storm. To his disciples, he says things like “Don’t be afraid,” and “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” And I realize, even after a decade of following Jesus Christ, that my faith is smaller than the mustard seed and I am still afraid of many things. I was terrified of the derecho storm. Jesus can command the storms that I have no power against. In Psalm 46, God says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” It is so easy to be afraid during the physical and inward storms of life, is it not? Many times during the Bible and even in life, God’s power is revealed in stillness. Stillness of the storm, stillness of the heart, and sometimes we just need our hearts to be still during the storm.

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

Psalm 46:1-3

As I write this, another storm has blown into the area. The thunder is rolling and the rain is pouring. And I ask myself, will my heart be still this time? Can I face tonight’s storm without fear?