Embracing the Storm

“Storms can serve as a divine wake up call to hear God’s voice again.”

When I was young, we had a German shepherd named Tiger who was deathly afraid of storms. When it thundered, Tiger would pace around, looking for an exit. One day, a ferocious storm came while Tiger was outside. My beautiful, loving dog panicked, running into the street and getting hit by a car.

In life, we encounter all types of storms that bring panic and fear. But what would happen if we embraced our storms? Jonah had a calling from God. But some major issues in Jonah’s life were hindering that call. Instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah resisted and boarded a ship in the opposite direction (Jonah 1:2). God responded with a storm: “Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose that the ship threated to break up” (v. 4).

Storms are often God’s tool to accomplish His purpose in our lives. Like Jonah, we might think running away is the easiest solution. And, while it might bring immediate relief, it ultimately compounds the intensity of our issues. We run from hard marriages or difficult conversations. As a pastor, when I would counsel couples to go to the hard places, they would often resist. So did Jonah. He was fixated on little things God doesn’t care about and ignored the big things God did care about.

One encouragement I take from Jonah’s story is that God is not afraid to call people with issues. That doesn’t mean it excuses us. But, in the process of our calling, God starts to deal with us. Storms can serve as a divine wake up call to hear God’s voice again. In verse 5 Jonah went into the ship and fell asleep. When we run from God, we avoid spiritual reality. We shut out anything that reminds us of our condition. We don’t want to deal with the issues God wants us to deal with.

But God used a diehard pagan to wake Jonah up and urge him to talk to his God. Friends, God is not limited in how He can speak to you. He speaks to us through His Word, but He can also use a storm to get our attention. If you find yourself like Jonah, disobedient and disconnected from your calling, there is time to turn around. Take notice of what happened to God’s prophet. Get up, wake up, and call out to God.