Storms are big news. We are told of their track and intensity days before we will be impacted. People rush to the grocery store to get last minute supplies. We fill up our spare gas cans. We even, at times, evacuate our home. Right now, we are being pounded by a winter storm. The past few hours the snow has fallen at the rate of 2 inches per hour. The radar shows how the lower half of the state is covered. We had notice of this. At first it was a forecast of 2 to 4 inches, which increased as it came closer. Today the forecast is 7 to 9 inches of snow.  Here in Michigan, we are accustomed to this.

Wouldn't it be nice is we had advance warnings of storms in our lives? We could prepare for the onslaught coming at us. Our storms are not minimized by stocking up on supplies from the grocery store. They are not solved by evacuating. One of my favorite movie quotes is from The Count of Monte Cristo. Dantes is speaking to a young man and says "Albert, in life you will face many storms. You must stand up and look right at the storm and say "Do your worst for I will do my best." For I will do my best. Yet it seems too much for us. Storms knock us off balance and destroy what we hold so dear. 

In the midst of the storm, when it feels like all hope is lost and is seems like Jesus is not paying attention, discouragement covers us klike a blanket. Yet we know that the disciples went through the same thing. Jesus, asleep in the boat in the midst of what seemed like a life ending storm. He calms the wind and the waves. At times, I have thought, "That's great but I am not in a boat." I need the storm in my heart to dissapate. 

The peace that floods my heart because I know that He hears me. Ps 18 :6 "In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God. He heard my voice from His temple and my cry came before Him, even to His ears." Knowing that He hears me makes the storm different because I know He is in the storm with me. Jesus, the Savior of my soul, the one who calms the storms on the seas and in my soul.