Facing the Storm

Blood Ransom is obviously a work of fiction, but what has been chilling to me since I first began writing and researching the book is that slavery today is very real.

There are 27 million people in the world today who are victims of human trafficking. One million of these are under that age of 18.

I’ll be sharing more about this later, but let’s bring it closer home. There are people lost and hurting all around us. In your own town. In your neighborhood. In your own home. Feeling lost. Looking for hope.

Do you remember the story in Mathew 14 when the disciples were out on a boat and a storm struck? In verse twenty-four the disciples feel the hopelessness of the situation. They are away from the shore, hit by the waves and the winds with seemingly no way out.

What about you? Are you there right now? Lost job, deserted by a spouse, rebellious children, illness… As hard as you look for Jesus you can’t see him. Maybe your heart has even hardened because you feel so alone.

In our Bible study with my kids, I was stuck by today’s lesson from Max Lucado’s Experiencing the Words of Jesus when he talked about this story. The storm was raging, the boat was being battered from every angle, and the disciples were terrified. Where was Jesus?

Many of us, Lucado writes, feel “suspended between verses 24 and 25.” We’re trying to ride out a storm, but with the fierce winds and high waves around us it seems impossible to survive.

Yet Proverbs 3:5 tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

It’s not always easy to keep trusting or to keep believing, is it?

But Jesus was there.

It wasn’t a ghost playing with their senses as they looked out over the storm-tossed sea, it was really Him. And He told them to take courage and not to be afraid.

If you feel lost in the midst of a storm today, brace yourself with his promises. When you can’t see Him, trust Him.

Psalm 37 says “Commit your ways to the Lord; trust him, and he will do this. He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”