The storms of life by Pastor Ed Young

Jesus had just finished a very intensive time of teaching.  Following that intensive time of teaching, as he usually did, he drew away.  He asked his disciples to jump in a boat with him and said, “Guys, we’re going to the other side.”  Jesus put his head down on a cushion, and the Scriptures record that he fell asleep.  It’s so easy to sleep on a body of water.  It kind of rocks us like a baby.  Suddenly, though, a storm struck.  Now, you’ve got to realize that they were on the Sea of Galilee.  It’s 600 feet below sea level, surrounded by mountains, and storms can come up just like that.  The disciples, these commercial fisherman, they were freaking out.  You know it’s a bad storm when fishermen are scared.  That’s just a good sign.  So, they said, “Jesus, wake up, wake up!  Don’t you care if we drown.”  Jesus got up and he calmed the winds.  He calmed the waves.  Then he looked at his disciples and said, “Where is your faith?”  “Why are you so afraid?” Christ asked.  There are several observations that we need to lift from this text, observations that can help us navigate the storms of life.

The first one is: Life is a mall of squalls.  I’ve had the privilege of traveling around a lot over my life, and I’ve seen a lot of different places, a lot of different places with stores.  But I’ve never seen a place that has shopping like Texas, especially Dallas/Ft. Worth.  Think about all the malls we have: Northpark, Grapevine Mills, The Galleria, Hulen Mall.  You name it, we’ve got a mall for it.  And the stores are so specific in the malls, aren’t they?  From specialty shops to kiosks, you can get anything you want in a mall.  I’m staggered at how specific the stores are.  Life is the same way.  The storms are the same way.  Life is mall of squalls, and the storms are so specialized.  There are so many of them.