Calm the Storm

From  http://trojanhorsecollective.com/conversations-with-my-storm/ 

There’s a storm, of dust and dirt, swirling in a chaos of grays and browns.  Lightning dances within the darkness to the beat of thunder’s drums.  Rain falls like shards of glass.  The wind howls, crying out and moaning as if in pain. 

Let’s call this storm the current state of my mind.  The dirt is my thoughts, the lightning is my ideas, the thunder is my desires, the rain is my emotions, and the wind, well the wind is the voice of others calling out to me like a siren’s song.

Now, imagine this storm has been suddenly trapped inside a little glass bottle.  Cork in place, the roaring chaos is but a muted whisper.  Its strength has not gone—it rages on as if nothing has happened.  And yet, on the outside, is has been silenced.  This glass bottle is the mask I wear, hiding the reality hidden underneath.

Despite the peaceful and confident mask I wear, I feel in this very moment weighted down by the storm in my mind and heart.  I feel stalked by the dark things in this world, things we combat fiercely with news reporters, Facebook posts and #hashtags: sex slavery, gang violence, drug trafficking, hate crimes, ethnic cleansing, systemic poverty, political corruption.  I’m trapped by my uselessness to truly do anything about it.  And those are things on a worldly scale—what about the things that affect my life here and now?  In comparison my situation feels insignificant, and yet it is holding me ever so strongly in its grasp.  It doesn’t feel small to me.  How can I reconcile that when the world is literally crumbling around me?

More importantly, as a Christ-follower and imitator, what am I supposed to do?  WWJD?  How would Jesus calm the storm in me?

I’ll tell you what Jesus would do, because he’s already done it for us.  He would walk up to my storm, speak his Truth to the wind and chaos and command it to be still.  He would turn to me, kiss my forehead, and take my worries, my doubts, my sins from me.  He would remind me that my burden is not my own, that I alone cannot save this world.  In fact, I cannot save anything.  Only God can.  With his soft voice he would remind me that He is the Eye in the storm, the Peace that transcends all understanding, the Light to this dark world.  He would take my hand and say, “My child, come follow me.”

Truly, “[h]umankind cannot bear very much reality.”[1]  Even with what little we do carry we are weighed down like Atlas, knees bent and trying to carry the world on our backs.  On our own, that burden is too much.  But with God, our burden is light and our joy is great.  We need but follow in Jesus’ holy footsteps, no matter how clumsy or slow we may be.  With our eyes on Him, our feet shall not waver from His path.

Let go and let God.

Stay tuned!

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[1] T.S. Eliot, “Dry Salvages” in Four Quartets (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1943. Reprint, 1971), 44.