There was a hammock in church this week. It is not the usual way to get comfortable for a service, but it grabbed my attention. Children were invited to climb in, and pretend it was a boat. They did not need to be asked twice. We grown-ups provided the gust and the splash, or at least the pretense of them, while the kids were jostled by the minister. The crescendo of our blowing and whistling ended abruptly, when he said two words. 

 

"Be still." 

 

There are stormy times in everyone's life, though it seems that the endings are more subtle. Healing is one that takes its sweet time, as does forgiveness. Sometimes quiet arrives while we are distracted, and it is only when we turn around that we realize the frenzy has subsided. 

 

One of the songs we sang captured the events. The last line lingered with me. 

 

"What kind of Man is this that the wind and waves obey?"

 

"A good leader", is what my heart heard. 

 

It occurs to me that the problem is less about the weather, than it is with my fear. People do hard things, sometimes flying in the face of turbulence. Yet the miracle for me comes not from my own resistance to forces I cannot control, as it does from the miracle that arrives in spite of them.