Spring and Summer announce time for outdoors and new adventures. After an eventful first day and night on board our floating house, the morning came early and everyone, except Ralph and I, loaded into the speedboat to water ski, wake board…etc. The lake was calm, smooth as glass, and our vacation was now in full swing. We watched the fast boat disappear. For hours Ralph and I enjoyed the silence and beauty of the lake. Another boat had pulled onto our ridge sometime in the night and we were looking for an opportunity to meet them.
Out of nowhere, our solitude was interrupted by a sudden strong gust of wind that instantly came over the waters. I was reminded that our God is Sovereign and controls the waters and the wind. The waves were rapidly peaking at 5’! Our boat began to rock and sway. The next thing we knew…the moorings pulled loose from the sandbar and we were thrust into the lake…backwards, propelled toward the cliff behind us!
As the boat pitched and we picked up speed…my first thought was, “The kids are on the open water…where are they?” and then… “Could we replace this massive beast if it crashed into the jagged cliffs surrounding it and sunk?!” “Worry is assuming a responsibility that God never intended for me to have…”
Ralph was on his feet and immediately took off like a bullet!
On a dead run, he looked over his shoulder and, in an effort, to calm my fears, yells,” Don’t panic, Jackie…safety is in the Lord!” The promise I needed. “Those who respect the Lord will have security, and their children will be protected”. Pro. 14: 26 This event had touched HIM first and had been given with divine purpose…no reason to worry or fret! My husband jumps the ten feet or more to the shoreline and grabs the rope that has slipped into the lake. All the moorings were now lying flat on the sandbar!
“Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.” Pro. 3:25-26
As I am drifting, alone, out into the lake, the neighbors we had not yet seen, came running toward our landing. Are you familiar with the verse that says, “and with the temptation (me…on the brink of near panic), HE will give a way of escape”? The stranger leaps into the lake and jumps on board with me! He grabs the wheel, starts the engine and points the “ark” toward shore. He, then, instantly disappears over-board to help Ralph, yelling back to me, “keep the engine running and aim it for the sandbar!”
His wife began shouting, “accelerate and hit the sandbar as hard and fast as you can!” That was the most logical and easiest command I had obeyed in a long time…I full-throttled that massive, flat-nosed craft “up onto” the sand, not realizing the job was so well done, it took eight campers to get us loose the day we left!!
The storm was raging and the rocking boat was once again secured, but our children and grandchildren were still out on the open water. Had they found refuge in a cove or were they trying to get back to us? “Jesus Christ is no security AGAINST storms, but HE is perfect IN storms.” L.B. Cowan
Ralph and I watched across the lake…praying. The storm raged on. Within an hour we heard in the distance an outboard motor and through the mist saw our heritage coming toward us. They had fought the wind, waves and strong current and God had brought them to us safely. The excited stories shared by my grandchildren that day were a grandma’s nightmare!
As quickly as the storm hit, the wind subsided and calmness was restored. The next few days were a tranquil dream…and a memory that will last a lifetime. “We will steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God.” Francis de Sales
Lest I fail to put real courage into perspective, “when John Huss was about to be burned to death, they asked him to give up his teachings. Huss answered, ‘what I have taught with my lips, I now seal with my blood’”. That is REAL courage!
Let’s face these days and this week courageously…
trusting our Sovereign God who is in control and calms the storms in life.
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
