am I at rest or resigned in my chaos
And who, exactly, am I talking about? Well, they’re the ones who stagger through the church door, looking a little haggard and yet strangely exhilarated. They’re the ones who come to church after a whirlwind of a week, gasping, “you’ll never believe what happened to me!”
…Before COVID, I naively said that church works best when there’s a sense of desperation. Well, I got more than I asked for, didn’t I? I doubt I’m the the only one who was a little more desperate this past year than I care to admit. The truth, though, is that even in a global pandemic, we still found a way to force our lives into some semblance of normalcy. Do you know what, though? Even amidst that global exercise in denial, week after week, folks would still come crashing through the church doors panting, “you’ll never believe what happened to me.”
It’s a common experience, really. To have the last thing you wanted to have happen turn out to be the one thing you most needed to have happen! To have your life lifted off its familiar struts and turned on its head. To have your secondhand faith fray at the seams. But then, to hear God with a vitality you never imagined possible amidst that devastating experience! To climb out of the wreckage of life and realize it was on the storm’s path that you heard God with that newfound clarity!
This is the great paradox of faith. You can know everything about God all the way from the cradle, but that doesn’t make you a believer. In fact, what makes a believer out of you is having all those things you’ve heard about God come under fire! For it is only then that we dare to believe we actually need a savior. And a crucified one at that! It's when the winds of life bear down on us that we darken the church doors, not because we think they're just there to help us stay on the straight and narrow, but because we need shelter from the storm!
It’s when the winds of life blow loudest that you hear the God who speaks from the whirlwind clearest! In other words, faith rarely comes together when the rest of your life is. On the contrary, the tenants of faith tend to click when everything else is coming apart. Because it is only then that we experience, for ourselves, the truth that Jesus didn’t come to improve our lives. No, he came to save them!
This is what happened to Job. It’s what converted him, actually! Job had been a respectable churchgoer ever since he christened the doors of the church on his mother’s knee. But that didn’t make a believer out of him. No, that didn’t happen until his life went down the tubes! Because it was right there that he heard, at long last, the God who speaks from the whirlwind!
When Job repents, he confesses that he’s heard a lot about God all his life. But none of that talk had a thing on God! And he’s right. Isn’t he? Religious talk is cheap. The problem is most of our talk about God is nothing but prattle! It fills the air, but it doesn’t say a thing about those times in our life when the air becomes unstable and thunderheads start appearing on the horizon!
It was right there, though, where all that religious talk stopped, that Job finally heard God! And he didn’t hear about God. No! He heard directly from God! And so will you. When your life’s in shambles, the weather conditions are just right for you to finally hear what God’s been saying all along! The storms of life are faith’s ideal climate!
…Now, not every gust of chaos that blows through your life comes from the nostrils of God. That’s just a part of living life on this side of Eden. However, there’s not a single wind of change that’s too loud to drown out the sound of God’s voice speaking to you from the whirlwind! In fact, those winds have a way of intensifying what God’s been saying!
It’s a perversity of life that we don’t actually hear God until life forces us to listen! What we hear when we’re in those dire straights, though, is what God’s been saying from the first! God says, “let there be light!” God says, “peace. Be still” (Mark 4:39). God says those storms of life can’t touch the power of My word made flesh. My word made flesh and coming to you right now with a word that can actually address the whirlwind your life has become!
And that, finally, is all it takes to become a believer. You don’t need any effort or accomplishments on your part. No, all you need is the debris of your life and the God who can actually speak to you out of that mess. All you need to become a believer is all your need. God will do the rest! And seeing as we all have plenty of need to be delivered, let’s get ready for God to do the deed to us all over again!
Whatever storm’s raging in your life right now, it’s not too strong for your deliverer, Jesus Christ! In fact, those storms are what we call “Jesus weather!” They’re just right for him to bring the power of his whirlwind of grace, mercy, and love that subdues the storms of life!
Whatever it is that you’ve been trying, and failing, to manage, Jesus speaks to you there. And he doesn’t tell you to get it under control. No, first of all, he actually goes ahead and dares to meet you in the eye of that storm! And then he goes a step further and speaks to you out of that whirlwind! And what he says is, “I come to still the storms of your life by the power of my word!” And what he says is, “none of those storms are stronger than my love for you!" And what he says is, "None of those storms are stronger than my power to save you!” And what he says is, “let there be light in the darkness of your storm!” And what he says is, “peace. Be still.”
…And so, may the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your heart and your mind. May it not matter one whit that you can’t understand this peace of God that comes when there’s no peace. May you not understand it, but instead stand under this peace of God! Find shelter from the storm in it! Then, may this wholly unexpected and totally disorienting experience leave you, as it has countless others, breathlessly panting, “you’ll never believe what happened to me!” May it make a believer out of you yet! And may it do so right now.
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