They say another storm is coming. We huddle in; we cease to travel; we make soup.

The way is blurry; we could slip on the ice; we don’t know what it would feel like to fall hard against this hard crack of earth; so we play in the snow. Children laugh; love that school is cancelled; I park myself in the kitchen.

Life has its seasons, and in Texas we go from 75 and sunshine to 28 and ice. The switch up requires flexibility, resilience, and a ready kitchen when the cold comes rushing in.

So like life. Turn your face to the sun and give thanks for the moment; seize the day; be ready for the shifts; stay grateful. Don’t give up trust when you can’t see what’s coming. Trust.

My friend’s grand-baby’s heart beats. His name: Judah.

Thump, thump, thump, says the monitor as she asks God to get the glory. The doctors say he won’t survive but a few moments if it all when he touches air. She trusts, relentless. Her daughter’s water breaks. Belly contracts. Young first-time momma and daddy wait. Still waiting for their baby to be born, hope to hold him before they bury him, knowing he is already born again. Hearts ache, tears fall, momma sleeps, but not really. God holds her in the waiting: Peace, be still.

They say the storm is coming, 90% chance. We huddle in, close. Then too close. Personalities flair, we separate, better in separate rooms. Then the storm blows past and we need each other again.

This air of grace: it’s oxygen.

I breathe in God’s graces.  God is my Safe Place, the place I run to, my Conqueror bent on conquest, my Prince coming back, my Rock upon which to stand. He is water, bread, wine, oil; He is All.

With the broken people all around him, squashed close in the boat and afraid of more things than we know, Jesus rested. Calm amidst the storm.

That’s what I want: to be the calm amidst the storm, and to know, when I can’t find my calm, the One who is.

To hear his voice over the rush of waters, and to know He’s got me. He who controls the wind and waves, He’s got you. He’s got your bills and your marriage and your daughter and your womb and your baby. He’s got your every heartbeat, because it’s His heart: thump, thump, thump, that gives you life and breath and air and sun and love and a gentle touch, a kind word, a compassionate gaze. The sweet taste of grace — it all comes from He who is the Calm Amidst the Storm.

“Be strong and courageous,” he tells Joshua, “I will be with you.”(Deut 31:23)

He’s got you. Be still and know that He’s got you.

Not the doctors, not the fears, not the failures, not the fog, not the demands or the debt or the demons or the doubts — not any of that.

Right before the storm comes, the storm comes. Possibly 100 Christians, now, more? Captured. He’s got them. He’s GOT THEM.  And the enemy, their swords and their masks and their vicious atrocities? Them too. Just watch; ALL, and I mean ALL, will be redeemed.

Today, declare it with me:  U R the Calm Amidst the Storm. U R our Peace, God, and your Presence is with your people.  Knowing this, we can walk straight into the fog and even the fury. We can rise up in this boat and face the squall.

We do not have to be afraid to face the hard thing in our life, to let go of what was His to begin with. We can see all that is good in our lives today and fixate on it. Fixate on the good. See His face in the warmth of the sun, the love of a friend, the blue in your child’s eyes, and remember Judah, the baby whose life on earth may be brief this week — maybe, maybe not — but whose life reminds us that only God commands the wind and the waves and the womb, and we can rest in the storm. God will have the last Word.

He will speak for us and through us and in spite of us, and we can answer His Word by laying our head in His lap and trusting Him, by kneeling in trust. And then by  getting up and walking straight into the fog, unafraid; marching right into the storm with confidence.

So if the storm comes tonight, or tomorrow, or it’s already been a squall and no one can see,  remember: He is the Calm Amidst the Storm, and we can rest  in Jesus’s sweet words to us:  “Peace. Be still.”

Believing for More of Him for all of us,