Early Saturday morning The Peninsula swung from her anchor in seas turned luminous by lightning and exploding rain. Each great swell seemed to bring the ship closer and closer to disintegration.Captain Simmons and his two guests…held tight to rails and bulwarks, trying hard in the manner of the age not to show their fear. All night the ship’s beams howled like wolves…
Dawn brought little relief. Green swells walled the ship. At intervals visibility fell to zero. It was impossible to open one’s eyes against the horizontal rain.
Isaac’s Storm, Chapter Three – Spectacle, by Erik Larson
The eye is a region of mostly calm weather at the center of tropical cyclones. The eye of a storm is a roughly circular area, typically 30-65 kilometers (19-40 miles) in diameter. It is surrounded by the eyewall, a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weather and highest winds occur. Wikipedia
On August 29, 2021, Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana. She came ashore with such fury she made her way into American history as tied for fifth place among recorded storms. She packed a huge wallop with 150 MPH sustained winds, making her a strong Category 4 hurricane. She landed exactly 16 years to the day after Katrina, the storm that changed New Orleans forever. What Ida lacked in flooding, she made up for with her winds. She hurled greater New Orleans and surrounding cities into darkness, destruction, and disarray.
Isaac’s Storm
Ida is one in a long tradition of devastating Gulf region hurricanes. The quote with which I began this piece is from Isaac’s Storm, the book by Erik Larson depicting American history’s deadliest hurricane, the Galveston hurricane of 1900. More than 8,000 people died in that storm because the available technology and prevailing wisdom had the storm weakening after leaving Cub and sauntering up the Florida coast. The mighty ship The Peninsula experienced the anger of the storm before it was even fully developed and all but came apart. The ship’s captain had no way to warn the authorities or citizens of impending danger.
Another passage describes weatherman and government official Isaac Cline’s personal experience in the storm…
When the trestle struck, Isaac was at the center of the room with his wife and his six-year-old daughter, Esther Bellew. His baby. A wall came toward him. It propelled him backward into a large chimney. There was motion. He could not see it, but he felt it all around. Things feff from the sky. Furniture, books, lanterns, beams, planks. People. Children. He entered the water. Something huge caught him and drove him to the bottom. Timbers held him. He opened his eyes. He felt the water but saw nothing. It was quiet. He could not move…
Isaac’s Storm, Chapter Four – Cataclysm
Isaac’s wife died in the hurricane.
Into the “I” of the Storm
Into every life, storms must come.
Storms that wreak massive and widespread havoc may impact thousands or even millions of people. Yet, for the one caught in the storm, it is personal. You are made to wonder its purpose in your life. Did you bring it on yourself? Are you the victim of random circumstances? Is it someone else’s fault? Is it just part of the human experience?
The amazing thing about God is that He is omnipotent, omniscient, and ever-present. One storm may impact a million lives for just as many reasons. He is God enough to customize what appears to be a universal catastrophe. He is good enough to make the storm count, to make it make a positive difference in the lives of those that love and live for Him.
The eye of the storm is that low-pressure center around which a wall of misery mightily spins. It is a place of eerie and deceptive calm. It will not last, the calm. The eye will move and the winds and the waves will follow with awful and awe-full power.
The “I” of the storm is that place of inner calm, that place of trust and understanding. The “I” of the storm is the place you find when you learn and accept its purpose in your life.
Tropical Storm Jonah: A Case Study
The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the LORD by sailing to Tarshish.
4 But the LORD hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. 5 Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. 6 So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”
7 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. 8 “Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”
9 Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
10 The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the LORD. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. 11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”
12 “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”
13 Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. 14 Then they cried out to the LORD, Jonah’s God. “O LORD,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O LORD, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”
15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! 16 The sailors were awestruck by the LORD’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.
Jonah 1:1-16 , The Holy Bible, New Living Translation
If you grew up in Sunday School, this was probably one of the first stories you heard that stuck. It is so fantastic! So unbelievable. So captivating. If they were naming storms back then, they would have ignored the necessity to choose whichever letter of the alphabet was up next and just name it Jonah.
A Storm of Correction and Direction
Tropical Storm Jonah was fierce. This seaworthy ship and its seasoned sailors were unable to withstand it. If it continued, the ship would be ripped asunder, capsize, and carry its cargo and passengers to deep blue depths of the sea. God clearly sent the storm on Jonah’s behalf – not to kill him or punish him, but to get his mind and his heart right.
Jonah knew what was up and he was ready to die in order to spare the sailors. God, however, had a different idea and a bigger stake in the storm than Jonah. Every man aboard that ship would come out of that storm better than he went in. He would come out with a newfound faith and the knowledge that Jehovah is the one true God.
This storm corrected the steps of a belligerent preacher and saved the souls of those with whom he traveled. Ultimately, it saved an entire city from its destructive course and the ultimate consequences of that course.
For Jonah, this was a storm of correction. For every sailor aboard that battered ship, it was a storm of direction.
A Storm of Protection
“Nineveh (modern-day Mosul, Iraq) was one of the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity. It was originally known as Ninua, a trade center, and would become one of the largest and most affluent cities in antiquity. It was regarded highly by ancient writers other than those who created the biblical narratives which cast it in a negative light.”
There was also a much larger interest associated with TS Jonah. One of the world’s great cities was vile and corrupt at its core. They were on a destructive path. Their own indulgences would soon become an irreversible and irrevocable death sentence.
The storm itself did not reach Ninevah. Maybe it dumped a little rain or even spawned a thunderstorm. But the storm that died at sea would save Ninevah from herself.
What did reach Ninevah was a reformed preacher. After the storm and the custom fish-belly boat ride, he had his mind right. He knew what he needed to do and he did it…
Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”
3 This time Jonah obeyed the LORD’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. 4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” 5 The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.
6 When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. 7 Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city:
” No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. 8 People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. 9 Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.”
10 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.
Jonah 3, New Living Translation
Saved by the storm! Well, not really. By the Master of the Storm, whose prerogative and power it is to personalize the big picture to suit your little needs.
A Storm of Perfection
Imagine you are an evangelist preaching a city-wide campaign and the entire city, including and even led by the King himself (mayor, whatever: this was a city-state), responds to your message, repents, and accepts your God as Lord and Savior.
Wouldn’t you be thrilled?
Not Jonah. He didn’t like these Ninevites. Secretly, he wanted them to reject the message. He wouldn’t have minded a front-row seat for his own version of a Sodom and Gomorrah meteor shower.
1 This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. 2 So he complained to the LORD about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. 3 Just kill me now, LORD! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”
4 The LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”
5 Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 And the LORD God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s head, shading him from the sun. This eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant.
7 But God also arranged for a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away. 8 And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed.
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
“Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”
10 Then the LORD said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. 11 But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”
Jonah 4
You say, “What a rotten preacher! He wanted them to suffer the consequences of their sins. He was aggravated that God had mercy on them.”
Yeah, and then when God gave him a personal illustration with a near heatstroke and a gourd that gave him shade and then shriveled, he got the message,
Or, I hope he did. The record abruptly cuts off with God’s object lesson without telling us whether this hard-headed preacher got the point. May I assume that since he wrote all this down for posterity that he did get the point? Maybe he grew beyond his selfish need for justice for everyone else and mercy for himself. Maybe he learned the true beauty of divine mercy…and grace.
Tropical Storm Jonah. One storm, a million stories. And God is in it in every instance.
Saved by the storm! Well, not really. By the Master of the Storm, whose prerogative and power it is to personalize the big picture to suit your little needs.
Out of the “I” of the Storm
I repeat…
The “I” of the storm is that place of inner calm, that place of trust and understanding. The “I” of the storm is the place you find when you learn and accept its purpose in your life.
“In the grand scheme of things, we have no idea how grand the scheme of things really is.”