The Storms of Life: What’s He Doing? There once was a man who dreamed he was at the end of his life. He saw his life as if it were a walk along a beach with Jesus. As he looked back over his life he saw two sets of footprints in the sand along most of the way – one set belonging to him, the other to Jesus. He noticed, though, that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints in the sand. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life. This really bothered the man, and he questioned the Lord about it. “Lord, You said that You would never leave me nor forsake me. You said that once I decided to follow You, You’d walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most difficult times in my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why, when I needed You most, You would leave me.”Jesus replied, “My son, I want you to know that I love you and that I would never leave you. Look again at those footprints. During your times of trouble and suffering, the footprints you saw were Mine. I was carrying you.” Today’s Gospel reading shows us that the Lord is with us through times of trial… or when the storms of life get to be too much to handle. Whether He calms the storm as he did for the disciples, or asks us to let him walk through the storm with us, as Paul talks of in 2 Corinthians, or gives us the strength to fight against it, as He did for David while up against Goliath; he is always with us. He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted. Jesus Calms the StormImagine with me for a moment you’re living during the time of Jesus. You’re a disciple and you’re getting into a boat with Jesus to cross this huge lake. My guess is that the boats were probably nothing like we have today. The boat by itself was a lot less trustworthy, I’m assuming. All of the...
