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White Knuckle Driving from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

Today I want to talk about what I call “white knuckle driving.” It is when you clutch the steering wheel of a car so hard that your knuckles become white. For example, my son once called us on Easter weekend. He had been involved in an accident and his leg was broken in several places. He was taken to a hospital, then transferred to another for surgery. That hospital operated on him, put a metal rod in his leg, and planned to release him the following day. So he was in a strange city with a broken leg, no friends, no vehicle, and nowhere to stay. It became an emergency travel situation.

Sylvia and I rented a car and set off to Ohio the following morning to bring him back to South Carolina. Unfortunately, there was a huge storm moving up the east coast at the same time as us, so we had to drive in blinding rain, along the winding mountain roads of North Carolina, West Virginia and Kentucky for about 13 hours. It was Easter weekend so the traffic was terrible and there was a police officer hiding behind every tree. It was a weekend filled with great tension, nervousness, anxiety, stress, white knuckle driving all the way. But God had arranged the entire situation, and He used it for good.

I felt like the disciples of Jesus in Matthew 8, like “Lord don’t You see what is happening?” There Jesus and the disciples set sail on a boat, when a great storm came up. Waves were crashing over the sides of the boat and they began to sink. It was so bad that the seasoned fishermen grew scared, but Jesus was asleep. We are talking about perfect peace, in the middle of a great storm. Let’s read it:

When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” Matthew 8:23–27 NASB

Jesus was sleeping peacefully through the storm, until they woke Him up. He was not worried, not stressed, not anxious, not scared, not nervous. He trusted His Heavenly Father to take care of Him. Jesus told Pilate in John 19:11 “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above.” He understood that nothing would happen to Him unless God allowed it. Just as in Job chapter 1, satan had to get permission from God before he could attack Job. It was the same with Jesus. It is the same with us.

God’s plans are huge, layered, complex, and why things happen a certain way, sometimes confuses us. We can understand them best when looking backwards. We would not be here, if we had not first been there. Our goal should not be to hang onto this life with a death grip at any cost, but to obey God, to put His plans before our own (Revelation 12:11). We want to be in control, but control is a complete illusion when we can drop dead at any moment, and the Earth will continue to spin. About all that we are in control of is our body functions, and most of those are automated.

There will be storms. When the Apostle Paul was being transported to Rome in Acts 27, the Lord wanted him to visit the Isle of Malta, but that was not on the ship’s course. The ship’s captain planned to spend the winter in a harbor of Crete about forty miles away. So a storm came and adjusted their course for them. 

For two weeks the winds and waves drove the ship across the sea until they were hundreds of miles off course. Even the seasoned sailors panicked and threw all of the ship’s cargo and tackle into the sea. They gave up all hope of surviving. Then an Angel appeared to Paul on the ship and told him to not be afraid, that he would stand trial before Caesar, but first they would run aground on a certain Island.

That island was the Isle of Malta, and Paul did a great work there over that winter. He healed all the sick and pretty much claimed the Island for Jesus. There is a statue of Paul on the Island today. Malta was just a stopping point while on his way to Rome, but it forever changed the people living there. The storm had come to correct Paul’s course and to help put him where he needed to be. It was not pleasant, but Paul was not really in any danger, for the hand of the Lord protected him through it.

It was the same with Jonah. The Lord told him to go preach to Nineveh, but Jonah didn’t want to do that. Instead, he boarded a ship bound for Tarshish, which was about 2,500 miles in the other direction. Despite his efforts, a storm came to correct his course. There was great panic on the ship and the sailors threw the cargo into the sea. The ship was about to break apart. They cast lots to see who was to blame, and it pointed to Jonah. They cast him into the sea, where he spent time in a custom fish hotel. When he finally arrived on the beach, he went to Nineveh. The storm came to correct Jonah’s course. He was nervous, panicking, scared, and anxious, but the storm was part of God’s plan for saving Nineveh.

We are the Church, the Body of Christ, the Ekklesia, which is Greek for: “The called out ones.”  We are called out of the world to be different. The Lord used that thirty stressful hours in our car to draw our family closer together, and He fixed things that had been broken for years. The storms in our life have a purpose, for God takes full responsibility for the life dedicated to Him.

Storms will come. We get scared and hang onto the steering wheel with white knuckles, struggling to remain in control, while it He who is controlling the storm and using it to adjust our course. We may be stressed, nervous, anxious, in a panic, but we would be better off to relax and trust Him as Jesus did. Isaiah wrote: “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3 NASB). 

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I thank You so much for taking care of me. Please calm my mind and my fears. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. I choose to trust You to put me where I need to be. My life is Yours. Correct my course as needed and help me see the world through Your eyes, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.