There is no more vivid and realistic and helpful picture of our voyage through the winter storms of life than this story in Acts 27. Paul had been arrested in Jerusalem for preaching Jesus Christ in a way that disturbed both religious and secular authorities. After appearing before several lesser magistrates, he had claimed the right of every Roman citizen and appealed directly to Caesar for justice. So he was put aboard a ship for the long voyage west to Rome.
Though the first part of the trip was uneventful, it was difficult because the wind was coming from the west. There were no major storms at sea, but because the wind was against them, their journey was slow and difficult. They had to tack into the wind, skillfully using their sails and rudder to sail diagonally back and forth into the wind.
There are times in life like that—when the wind seems to be against us, when we just can’t seem to make much progress. There is nothing major that is wrong, but it’s difficult. We might say that the wind of God is not filling our sails; instead he seems to be against us.
Paul’s journey had begun in fall, because everyone knew that you had to complete your voyage "ere the winter storms begin," as an old hymn puts it. Even today, massive cruise ships don’t sail on the Mediterranean late in the autumn, because life on that sea gets dangerous and deadly as the winter storms begin to brew. So the ship carrying the Apostle Paul slowly worked its way north and west to the southeastern tip of Turkey, where the Mediterranean meets the Aegean Sea.
There Paul was transferred to a large freighter sailing from Alexandria, Egypt, to Rome, Italy. Because of the adverse wind had slowed the first leg of Paul’s journey, it was getting dangerously late in the sailing season now. But the captain decided to put to sea anyway, because this was a large ship, 180 feet long and 45 feet wide and 43 feet high, about half the size of a football field and taller than a four story building, big enough for a great deal of cargo and 276 people, including crew and passengers. The ship continued to struggle into the head wind, until it came to the island of Crete about 170 miles south and west of their departure point in Turkey.
Because the prevailing wind from the west was so strong, the ship sailed in the lee of Crete, using the island as protection. As their ship was creeping along the southern coast of Crete looking for safe harbor in which they could spend the winter, the wind suddenly shifted and came from the northeast. And the crew discovered what many of us already know. Having the wind of God against you can make life difficult, but having it at your back can be terrifying. An early winter storm, what they call in New England a "nor’easter," came blasting down off the island and the ship was swept away from the coast out into the open waters of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a hurricane force wind, says the story, and it immediately put the whole expedition in peril.
It is fascinating to see the parallels between what these sailors did to save their lives and what we do in the storms of our lives. As they sensed winter approaching, even before the storm hit, they were looking for safe harbor, a place they could ride out the inevitable storms of winter. It’s ironic that they hoped to get to Phoenix and winter there. When we read that, we think of Phoenix, Arizona, and the way so many people living in the icy northern states flee to the American southwest for a warm and safe harbor during the winter. But this Phoenix was a city on the southwestern end of Crete, the last port before the open waters of the Mediterranean. The crew of Paul’s ship carefully moved along the coast in the hope that they could get to Phoenix and be safe there during the winter storms.
We try to do the same thing as we navigate the vast sea of life, carefully preparing for the inevitable storms of winter. Maybe if we get a secure job, take care of our health, tend our relationships, provide for our children’s college education, save our money, pay off our home, get life insurance, we can avoid the danger of winter. But these sailors discovered what some of us know only too well. There’s no stopping the storm.
In 1991, a freak combination of strong weather fronts created what has been called The Halloween Nor’easter. The story of that storm and the New England sailors who were trapped in it has been immortalized by Sebastian Junger in his best selling book, The Perfect Storm. This storm of the century took the lives of a number of fishermen who were caught in its hellacious 100 foot waves that flipped fishing trawlers end over end like they were footballs.
I mention this because a friend of mine was caught in a perfect storm, not at sea, but in his life. A freak combination of events flipped his life end over end. A trusted long time business associate embezzled a huge sum of money from my friend’s company. Then several large customers decided to move their business to other firms. Then the entire local economy hit hard times and his business plummeted still further. Finally, after thirty five years of successful business done with honesty and integrity, he had to declare bankruptcy. But his perfect storm wasn’t over yet. Because of the real estate troubles in the country, he couldn’t sell his business building or his home. And because he was about my age, he couldn’t get a job. My friend was hit by a winter storm of unimaginable proportions, and there was nothing he could do to stop it, any more than the sailors in our biblical story could stop the nor’easter that blew them out into the open Mediterranean where they were at the mercy of the elements.
The story chronicles the various things they did to survive their storm. Their navigational tactics were strangely parallel to ours. The first thing they did when the storm hit was to give way to the wind. They stopped trying to tack into the wind as they had been doing, which they had done, of course, to control the direction of their voyage. Now they knew they had lost control of their lives, so they turned and let the wind blow them away from their destination. They did many more things to try to stay afloat as they were driven by their winter storm into uncharted territory, but the first thing they did—and the first thing we must do when we’re hit by the "perfect storm"—is to surrender to the will of God. To battle the wind, to keep trying to make head way into that hurricane, would have meant certain ruin for their ship. In a "perfect storm" like the one that flipped my friend’s life end over end, we have to surrender to the wind of God if we’re going to survive. We have to go with the wind, and surrender to God’s will, however hard that may be.
Now, as I said, these sailors did much more than that. Once they turned and went with the wind, they did other things to save their own lives. The next thing they did was to decide they couldn’t save their own lives by a man—made lifeboat. They hauled in the lifeboat that had been trailing behind the big freighter and made it secure on deck, so it wouldn’t smash into the stern of the boat in the heavy seas. They could have climbed into it and tried to row back to Crete. In other words, they could have taken their fate into their own hands and tried to save their own lives by using the nearest available lifeboat. But they resisted that temptation, knowing their own efforts could not save them.
They did try to make their ship stronger by passing ropes under the ship to bind it together, in the same way that we try to pull our lives closer together as the winter storms hit us. We hug our loved ones a little tighter. We hold onto our church a bit more. We reach out to friends and pull them closer. We monitor our resources more carefully. We try to tighten up our little ship.
These sailors did more. They lowered the sea anchor to slow down their surging craft, in the same way that we try to slow down our careening lives by dropping the anchor of our lives deeper into God. As life is tossed in the storm, we sink deeper into the solid values and strong faith that anchor us so that the storm won’t simply blow us away. Further, Paul’s sailors lightened their ship by throwing cargo overboard, stripping life down to its essentials just to be able to ride higher on the waves and avoid crashing into the dread sandbars of Syrtis on the far off, but fast approaching coast of Africa. My friend tried to do that, too, getting rid of his house and the new car and other features of a financially successful life, as many things as he could, so that he could ride out the storm and hold onto the main things.
Finally, these sailors even threw the ship’s tackle overboard, the sails, the ropes, the yardarms, maybe even the main mast. They were so desperate that they would do anything just to survive, even foolish things. They got rid of the very equipment they needed to sail. Sometimes we do that, too, in our panic. We throw overboard the very things we need to survive—our friends, our church, our faith, our hope. But at last, says verse 20, they gave up all hope of being saved.
That’s when God spoke to them through the mouth of the apostle Paul. Earlier Paul had warned them not to sail at all. "It’s too close to winter," he said. Now he has a promise from God for this stormy time in their bleak mid—winter. "Not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the Lord stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island."
That is God’s promise to us, as well, in the winter storms of life. "Not one of you will be lost," because of Jesus. There is a wonderful story in Mark’s Gospel that shows us the power of Jesus in the storms of life. After a busy day of teaching, Jesus asked his disciples to take him to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was a peaceful evening out on that little lake, but suddenly a ferocious storm came roaring out of the west through a wind tunnel formed by a mountain pass. Instantly the Sea of Galilee was whipped into waves so big they threatened to swamp their little boat. The disciples were terrified. But Jesus, exhausted by his day of teaching, slept peacefully in the stern of the boat.
This was such a mystery to the disciples, as it often is to us. This storm has hit them even though Jesus is in the boat with them. How could that happen? If Jesus is with me, I should be spared the storms of life. And when they come anyway, how can he sleep while I am in such danger? Why doesn’t Jesus do something to help me in my perfect storm? We don’t know, but this story in Mark 4 shows us something very assuring about the storms of our bleak midwinter.
The disciples waken Jesus. "Lord, don’t you care if we drown?" Of course he does, but what can he do? Help them row, tend the sail, bail out the water, help them swim for shore? No, he could do more than that—much more. He got up, says the story, rebuked the howling wind and said to the crashing waves, "Quiet! Be still!" And immediately the wind stopped and the sea was completely calm. He turned to his disciples and asked, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
The answer is that we’re afraid because of this storm that rages around us, and our fear makes us forget who Jesus really is. "They were terrified," goes the story, "and they asked, ‘Who is this?’" This is the Storm Master. This is the Master of the universe, who created all the elemental forces of the universe with a simple word and controls them the same way now.
Why do storms strike those who have Jesus in their boat? We don’t know, but we do know that he has absolute control over the wind and the waves. And he will get us safely to harbor. In John 17:12, Jesus said something very like the angel said to Paul here in the storm. "While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by the name you gave me. None has been lost…." On a much grander scale than in this story of Paul, God has graciously given to Jesus the lives of all who sail with Jesus. "Not one of you will be lost."
Sure enough, on the 14th night of the storm, the sailors heard breakers off in the distance. Thinking that the big freighter would be smashed on the rocks, they tried to save themselves by abandoning ship and using the life boat. Paul shouted, "Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved." So the soldiers cut the ropes and let the lifeboat fall into the raging seas.
When morning dawned, they could see land, a bay with a beautiful sandy beach. They were saved. But just then, just when they thought they were home free, disaster struck. They had cut loose the anchors, freed up the steering oars, and raised the foresail so they could make a rush past the rocks and glide into safe harbor. But they hit a sandbar and the ship was stuck fast. The raging seas pounded the back of the boat, until it shattered and sank. But God had made a promise in the middle of that terrible winter storm—"not one of you will be lost." So, says the story, "everyone reached land in safety."
That is God’s promise to those who stay with Christ, who do not abandon ship even when it looks as though destruction is certain. That is such a temptation in the storms of our bleak midwinter. We believe in Jesus when the seas are calm and even when the winds are against us and life is tougher. But when the perfect winter storms hit and we are terrified, it is hard to keep trusting the Master of the Storm. And we’re tempted to abandon Jesus, because it seems that he has abandoned us. Well, that is the very time to stay the course, to surrender to God’s will, trusting that Jesus will stop the storm and get us to safe harbor.
That is the promise for the bleak midwinter—you will reach the Promised Land in safety. You may not glide in majestically under full sail with all the cargo of life intact. You may stagger ashore gasping for air, your ship shattered and your precious cargo lost at sea. But Jesus will finally calm the storm with a word and bring you to the safe harbor of the Father’s arms. That’s the last promise for the bleak mid—winter of life. Even when your life is battered by the storms of winter and you have almost given up all hope of being saved, if you stay with the ship in which Christ is captain, "Not one of you will be lost."
Stan Mast
Stan Mast has been the Minister of Preaching at the LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church in downtown Grand Rapids, MI for the last 18 years. He graduated from Calvin Theological Seminary in 1971 and has served four churches in the West and Midwest regions of the United States. He also served a 3 year stint as Coordinator of Field Education at Calvin Seminary. He has earned a BA degree from Calvin College and a Bachelor of Divinity and a Master of Theology from Calvin and a Doctor of Ministry from Denver Seminary. He is happily married to Sharon, a special education teacher, and they have two sons and four grandchildren. Stan is a voracious reader and works out regularly. He also calls himself a car nut and an “avid, but average” golfer.
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