This thought is an excerpt from a writing I published a few years ago about a storm in the Bible.
It isn't a Bible study,
But just how the story spoke to me.
In Acts 27,
There was a ferocious storm called a Urocladon,
In which the apostle Paul found himself while imprisoned on a ship headed for Rome.
If you read the story,
You can almost imagine yourself being there.
A Urocladon is a major nor'easter,
With winds blowing 100 miles an hour clockwise and counterclockwise at the same time.
A scene like that,
Even in the imagination,
Is scary.
Such a storm in those days in that part of the world came suddenly with very little warning.
They had no weather forecasting technology in those days.
The storm lasted longer than they would have imagined,
As it grew more and more fierce.
The men struggled to steady the ship,
Throwing cargo and other things overboard in desperate efforts to save the ship and their lives.
Now fast forward in your imagination of the story to now.
COVID-19,
The global pandemic,
Is the global Urocladon of our time,
And we're on our own ships in the storm of life.
As though the harrowing winds of the pandemic blowing clockwise were not life-threatening enough,
The winds of social conflict,
Moral injustice,
Corruption,
Hatred rip counterclockwise at the same time.
That may even be a picture of your life at this moment.
In the storm of Acts 27,
There was a loss of property,
But no loss of life.
In this Urocladon,
We have suffered great loss of both.
As did the ancient storm of the Bible times lasted longer than imagined,
So too this the worst pandemic of the last 100 years,
And yet not completely over.
For 50 years,
From a social perspective,
We have been in the eye of the storm.
Quieter winds,
Even the sun shone through the clouds.
But with every cyclone,
There is the backside of the storm.
Is that what this is?
Think about it.
The storm will pass over.
Every storm does.
Every vicious and damaging wind will die down.
We know this because we've been here before,
In some way or another,
At some time or another.
We've been in storms before.
In the Acts 27 story,
Paul talked about an angel of God and was told there would be no loss of life.
Further instructions were given to ensure their eventual survival.
In a life-threatening situation,
There is always panic,
Always a level of mindlessness and chaos,
Some doing the right things,
Others not.
Intriguing in this Bible story is that one man retreated from amid all the panic and frenzy and engaged in conversation with an angel who gave him information that changed the course of the mood,
Focus,
And eventual outcome.
There is no one man or woman that can do that in this day.
William Henley,
In his poem Invictus,
Writes,
I am the master of my fate.
I am the captain of my soul.
We are the captains of our ship,
And there is a destination.
Retreat just for some moments,
Away from the doings,
The crescendo of voices,
Opposing agendas and clamoring distractions,
To hear the voice of spirit.
Another reference,
John 16,
23,
Says,
However,
When the spirit of truth comes,
It will guide you in all truth.
It will proclaim to you what is to come.
Beloved,
I close with this empowering thought from Psalm 46 10.
Be still and know that I am God.
God speaks in the silence.
