Calm the Storm!

We had just left the orthodontist’s office when I pulled into the parking lot for the grocery store. It seemed like every single parking space was full and we had to park way out by the road. As me and Kristina walked through the doors I thought "Oh, this will be fun!" The place was crowded. I pulled my list out of my purse, got a pen and took a breath. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving and everybody and their mother was there getting their holiday meal groceries. Me, I was too broke to buy the holiday food and was simply there to buy my weekly groceries and knew that I was going to have to wave the storm in a few days (the day before Thanksgiving) to get my holiday groceries.

Up and down the aisles I went. Meticulously marking off the items that I was there to get and after placing each item in the buggy I would flip my list over and manually add up my list. I knew I only had so much money and I could not under any circumstance go over that limit. People seemed to get frustrated with me for just standing in the aisle. I wasn’t in the middle in anyone’s way I was just pulled over to the side as close I could possibly get to the aisle itself. But, that didn’t matter to some women. Kristina was rammed in the back several times with a buggy, her foot rolled over and if these women were fire breathing dragons I think both she and I would be considered "crispy" about right now.

Kristina finally threw in the towel and asked to go look at cds in the electronics department and I felt so sorry for her I agreed. I began to look into my buggy, look at my list and flip the list over to see where I was money wise. There were several items that I needed that I knew I had accidentally missed but they were three or four aisles back and there was no way I was going to go back! No way!! I finished up getting about three days worth of groceries, grabbed Kristina and out the door we ran. As I walked in the house Shane began to ask "Did you get water?" "Nope!" I replied. "Did you buy a new mop?" "Ummm...sure didn’t!" I quipped. "Why not?!?!?!" I stopped for a minute, popped my brown eyes at him and said "That place was NUTS and I got what I could get and RAN!" He snickered and Kristina piped up, "No, seriously Daddy, you have NO clue!" We all began to joke and exaggerate what the store had been like and before long the irritation from my grocery trip was gone.

I woke up this morning with no story for my blog. I began to pray on the way to work which is pretty usual and then I looked at the clock knowing that I was running behind. "Lord, please let these cars get out of my way!" I said. I said it not really praying for it but just saying it to keep my patience. About that time, cars started changing lanes and it was if the road was all mine. I zipped through traffic like it was nothing. As I was walking into my office building the story of Jesus calming the sea came to my mind. The story is Mark 4:35-41. But, my favorite part is in verse 39. Jesus said, "‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm." First of all I am in awe of the "Quiet! Be still!" The exclamation marks really get me. He didn’t just quietly say it. He yelled it! You know, like we yell at our kids. I can just see him, standing there, finger pointing at the seas yelling "QQQQQQQQUUUUUUUIIIIIIIEEEEETTTTT! BE STILL!" And THEN it was completely calm! How about that? Just like that, it was calm. I bet it was faster than snapping your fingers or blinking your eyes! Poof!!! No more wind!

God can calm your storm. Did you know that? What we need to realize is he allows us to go through storms so we won’t forget that he is the one who calms them. It doesn’t have to be a life changing storm, although it can be, but simply driving through traffic, fighting the crowd while grocery shopping or heaven help us, shopping the day after Thanksgiving! He calms our storms. But, just remember, in verse 38,they said, "Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?". They woke Jesus up and asked him to calm the storm! So, when you find yourself in the middle of a raging storm, just catch your breath and ask Jesus to calm your storm!