Jesus sleeping during a storm

There’s a story of a man caught at his house during a flood. As the waters rose, someone came by in a boat and offered to take him to safety. “No,” the man said, “God will rescue me!” Later, the waters had risen even further and another boat came by. The man similarly replied, “No! I have faith that God will rescue me!” The waters rose further and the man soon found himself on his roof. Another boat came by and its driver frantically motioned for the man to climb in and flee to safety. The man once again responded, “No! My God will rescue me, I’m sure of it!” The waters rose further and the man was swept away and soon drowned. In Heaven, the man had a chance to talk to God. “Why did you not rescue me?” the man angrily demanded. “What do you mean?” God asked. “I sent three boats!”

I’ve read today’s passage of Jesus calming the storm countless times growing up in the church. The idea of Jesus calming a literal and figurative storm for the disciples is a powerful one that gave me and many others hope in the storms of our lives. But I’ve been in many stressful situations where the storm didn’t clear. I’ve been in situations that threatened to drown me and I waited patiently for God to miraculously clear the storms. I was disheartened that it rarely happened to me as it did in this story.

I find myself now just coming out of a storm. A work project got wildly out of hand and I worked, in some cases, up to 70 hours a week trying to get it back under control. Co-workers desperately flailed to avoid blame and hurled accusations at other co-workers, which led to an investigation into my behavior on the project (that turned up nothing significant). It was a storm that I was sure would drown me, and I needed rescue.

In what seems to be a small miracle, after five months of chaos, I weathered the storm and arrived on the other side. The storm didn’t subside, but I found support in my family, friends, and other co-workers that got me through safely. I am frazzled, burnt out, and tired—but I am here with my supporters (and fellow trauma survivors), and the project was successful.

For those who don’t know, I have chronic mental health problems, including severe depression and anxiety. I’ve been treated for this condition for half of my life, and it’s made a world of difference, but life can still be tough. In dealing with my condition, I’ve also weathered storms that I thought would kill me—so much so that I sometimes felt that there was no way out and that I had nothing else to live for. The storm that raged inside me was just as powerful and dangerous as any I had faced externally. In those times, I didn’t get the miraculous rescue I had read about in the Bible. But I did get some Xanax. Effective medical treatment has saved my life many times, and that “boat” that God sent got me through the storm just as safely.

Storms can look different for all of us, and rescue from those storms can also be very different. There will undoubtedly be times when God miraculously clears the storms in your life and sets everything right; but based on my own experiences, there will also be times when he doesn’t. During the storms in your life, don’t be so expectant for a miracle that you miss the solution. Sometimes God sends a boat; sometimes he sends several. We can ponder and debate the validity of our experiences or the worthiness we may feel (or not feel) as we see others miraculously rescued from their storms. But coming from someone who’s gotten through countless storms: no matter the size and grandeur of the solution, don’t miss the boat.