During a Storm, Bail!

“Why do you like thunderstorms?” asked an inquiring mind. “Because it shows that even nature needs to scream sometimes.” Author Unknown

Life is full of routines. Routines are dependable, and that’s a comfort when it seems so much of life is out of control. The world is often a very scary place. It is like the story in the Bible where the disciples are striving to cross the big lake one evening after a full day of preaching and teaching. Jesus is asleep at the back of the boat and a major squall rises up. It is so severe that it threatens to swamp the boat and sink it, drowning everyone onboard.

Life is like that. We turn on the news and it seems that nothing is going on except war, pestilence, famine, domestic strife, mass shootings, and fires without end – Amen. It is truly disheartening and discouraging. One is tempted to go full turtle: covering ears, closing eyes, pulling in heads and limbs, and going to sleep until everything has just gone away. It’s tempting to turn off the news and whistle our way through the graveyard.

Some ladies were visiting a graveyard one day after one of their friends who, like a certain Alexander, had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.* They’d gone to anoint the body because his arrest, trial, conviction, and execution had been so swift they hadn’t even had a chance to prepare him for a proper burial. 

When they got there, the tomb was empty and an angel sat on the stone which had been removed from the mouth of the sepulcher. The angel asked them who they were looking for, and when they told him they were looking for Jesus, the angel (eyes atwinkle, I suspect) replied, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is alive and has gone before you, as he said he would. Go …”

The fact is we can’t fix things if we don’t face them. There’s more to life than fixing things, of course. Sometimes all we can do is sit with someone who is hurting and hurt with them. We can recognize when we do something wrong and decide to do something differently next time. 

One of the driving forces behind Jesus’ life and ministry was something he called the “kingdom of God,” and while we may think the term to be quaint and/or antiquated (since we’re not all that big on kings and queens, dukes and duchesses, counts or countesses) his view is less about hierarchies and more about seeing God in the people, places, and situations that surround us.

Jesus doesn’t define the kingdom of God as much as he describes it. Jesus uses the term “like” a lot. “The kingdom of God is ‘like’ a seed, which starts small but grows a big bush. Or the kingdom of God is ‘like’ an empty net that is tossed into the sea and gathers an abundant draught of fish…” 

It isn’t much different for us, is it? The kingdom of God is like leaves that clog a storm drain and the homeowner takes her rake and clears the clog, saving her and her neighbor’s property from the stormwaters. Or the kingdom of God is like what happens when a car gets stuck. One man sits in the back of the car praying for a solution while the other gets out to push. 

In other words, yes, the kingdom of God is a mix of those who do and those who pray. This is not to denigrate prayer, but to underline that prayer isn’t about asking God to do something, but asking God what we must do (God helping). 

The kingdom of God isn’t perfect, and neither are we, but nothing will change unless something or someone changes. So Jesus invites us to open our eyes and ears, look and listen, and identify what it is we can do to help. 

Don’t worry about what those around you are or are not doing. In the midst of the storm, it’s OK to beg Jesus for relief. But while you’re begging, don’t stop bailing. The bucket may well be the answer to your prayer in this, our storm tossed valley.

* ALA Notable Children’s Book, by Judith Viorst

Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available through Amazon in Print and e-book)