Day 28

Life involves risk – not reckless risk of our own choosing – but human risk that comes from living in a fallen world.

‘He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.’ (MATTHEW 5:45b)

The Bible has much to say about storms that Jesus permits. He doesn’t necessarily instigate them (though He may) – but He certainly permits them. To be a Christian is not to be exempt from some of the troubles of life. There are certain things, said Jesus, that happen in the lives of the evil and the good, the righteous and the unrighteous.

The normal laws of life apply to all of us; normal statistics apply to all of us. I don’t think there are any statistics that tell us that if you are Christian, your chances of having an accident are reduced significantly – other than the fact a more wholesome lifestyle has naturally better consequences.

In the storms of life, what the Gospels do teach us is that Jesus is present in them (in the boat with His disciples in a storm) and that He is Lord over them (walking on the water to His disciples in a storm). But we are not exempt from the storms, nor the traumas that may come through them. It is His presence with us in the storms that marks us off from those who have to endure them alone.

When we are in the midst of a storm, can we see Jesus in the epicentre?