Peace

It was truly a set of miracles that put me in Houston, Texas in June of 1982.

I had become the Laboratory Supervisor of our local hospital, and one of my first duties was to evaluate and select a new Chemistry Analyzer for our laboratory.

I had surely set this task to prayer as during the previous seven years of my life I had spent all of my energies in developing the Bacteriology Department.  I had elt what chemistry I had learned slowly decay in my brain.  Now I had a lot of remembering and updating to do.  Technology had certainly not stood still while I was preocupied with Bacteriology.  There were dozens of machines on the market, but which one was the best for us?

Well, I made a decision, an instrument called an Hitachi.  I felt quite confident about the instrument, it was the price tag that was the foot stomper, $97,000.

We were a small hospital, only 95 beds, however even a 95-bed hospital needs to give top quality care to its patients, and we also had a large outpatient population. So the instrument was purchased.

As part of the purchase price, two technologists were to be flown to Houston, Texas where they were to receive a week of training on the instrument.  I was one of the two.

The big excitement for me was that this was the same city which my brother, Brian called home, and I had never visited him there before.

I called my brother and told him about the purchase and that the training was in Houston.  I hoped to fly in early to spend the weekend before the school with him, and stay for the weekend following the school as well.

I know he was pleased.

Our next conversation revealed plans on both sides.  Brian told me he had rented a sailboat for 2 days and a night in Austin, Texas.  It should be fun he thought.  But, fear griped my stomach and yet my head felt the excitement at the same time...a foreboding feeling.  I dismissed it and didn't reveal it again until later, much later.

............So, there I was in Houston, Texas.

Brian lived with a lovely young lady named Donna who I quickly grew to like.  It was Donna who picked me up at the airport and I spent the weekend before "Hitachi School" getting to know her and catching up with the "missing years" with my Brother.

I stayed at a hotel near the school during the week, but my brother and Donna and I got together a few nights and we had good times together.

The weekend following the training week we were to drive to Austin, Texas.  We planned to spend two days and a night on the lake sailing and swimming and just relaxing together.

The week of training passed and there we were in Austin, at the lake.  Donna and I began carrying all our necessities (junk) from the car to the sailboat while Brian spoke with the proprietor.  It was quite a hike from the hill down the stairs to the marina, but Donna and I got most of our gear loaded on the boat by the time Brian appeared.

We got the sails set and motored our way out of the marina toward the major part of the lake.

It was a very hot day...............beautiful!  Not much wind, but enough for me to get a crack at sailing.  We finally anchored off an island and took a swim.  The water was great!  It was warm, more like bath water!  In New York where I lived, the lakes and the water might get warm, but there were always cold spots.  In Austin the water was warm with hot spots!  We spent the whole day sailing and swimming, it was tremendous.  I remember feeling like I should just drink in the scene because it was so perfect, it could never be repeated!  Me in Austin, Texas, sailing on a 26-foot sailboat on a near perfect day with my brother!

Of course evening was inevitable, so as the sun began to descend in the sky we found a cove to tie up the boat, and we prepared to spend the night there.

I had become a born-again Christian since my brother had moved away, so during this trip, the topic of Jesus kept popping up in our conversations.  My life had changed so very much and whenever Brian or Donna asked me a question, Jesus seemed to be a part of the answer.  Of course I was anxious to tell Brian what I had learned and experienced as a born-again Christain.

So, as we sat on the boat with the sun disappearing and the moon shining bright, I shared about the Lord with Brian and Donna.

As often happens in that area of Texas, there was a thunderhead off in the distance and as we talked on and on into the night about Jesus, we watched in amazement at the beautiful light show going on in the cloud, far off in the distance.

What we couldn't see taking place were the thunderheads sneaking up on us from beside us.  We were anchored in a cove with the high hills on either side of us.  We had each jumped out of the boat and waded to shore and scaled the hill (cactus and all) to find a private place to relieve ourselves before darkness set in.  Now those hills hid a storm that was amazing in intensity.

Around midnight or so, as we were still lounging on the back of the boat, leisurely watching the light show and talking about the Lord, a storm hit us so suddenly and intensely that we all ran to tie down the sails and secure anything not solidly attached.  I am still amazed at how suddenly the storm hit.  The wind was howling, the rain pelted us and the lightning was amazing!  We raced to tie down the sails and then to lower the top of the cabin to a level that had us bent in half to move around inside the boat.  Brian was the last inside and he dropped the wooden door into place.  We were "sealed" inside the boat.

We considered going on shore, but it was wild and uninhabited and we had seen snakes in the water.  To go up on those hills in the dark during a lightning storm was just not an option.

The wind howled and tossed our little boat side to side.  Rain pounded on the roof and waves rocked us.  Above the roar I yelled to Brian, "How do you know we are still tied to shore?"

Brian's eyes grew big and he threw open the wooden door and he peered outside.  "We're not!" he yelled."Get me my sneakers!"

I groped for his sneakers and threw them to him.  He had them on and ran on deck and jumped off the boat into the water in a few seconds.  He grabbed the rope and pulled on the boat.  The rope to the back of the boat was still holding, but the front had broken loose.  He pulled and dragged the boat closer to the bank.  The wind blew directly at him and the boat strained.  There were two rocks, one on top of the other on the bank.  Brian ran the rope around between these two bolders and pulled to bring the boat in closer.  I stood on deck, Donna shining a flashlight on the proceedings and I stood helplessly by, but in my heart, I panicked.  I looked at the situation of the 26-foot long boat being held by a rope around those two rocks.  My brother was standing right in the way if they should fall from the weight of the boat now straining in the wind and pulling straight away from the rocks,  I was scared for him.  He'd be killed if the rocks fell and they didn't look that sturdy to me!  I was about to yell to him, but something stopped me....in my head I heard a quiet voice,...."Who is the rock?" it said.  I knew, the rock was Jesus!  I turned away from the scene confident that the rope would hold securely.  There was nothing I could do up top, so I decided to go down into the cabin.

I had nearly drowned as a child and I had a sincere fear of water if I wasn't in control of the situation.  I had become a pretty good swimmer, but swmming and diving were situations I could control  However, severe storms in a sailboat which is being thrown about like a tin can, and lightning to the amount I had never seen before, especially with a mast sticking up high out of the water, was a situation I was definately not in control of!  To top it off the one place I was taught to never be in during a thunderstorm was in the water, and here we were, in the water!

So, as I descended the stairs down into the cabin, my knees were knocking and my hands were trembling and my teeth were chattering.  In short, I was terrified!  I was afraid for myself, but so very strongly in my mind were the thoughts of the witnessing I had just done about my walk with Jesus.  Boy, was I ever a great witness now!

In my fear, I began to scream at God.  After all, no one could hear me above the din of the storm.  I yelled at the Lord, where was He?  Why couldn't I have the faith I needed not to be afraid?  "Look at me, I'm no wintness in the shape I'm in!" I yelled.  "Help me!"

My crying out to the Lord lasted about as long as it took to walk down the few steps into the cabin, but before my feet hit the cabin floor, something amazing began to happen to me.  Scripture verses about peace began to flow through my mind at amazing speed, but it wasn't just words, it was reality!  Peace flowed through me; the peace that the bible says passes all understanding.  My fear began to leave, my hands became steady and my heart began to slow its fearful pace.  I sat down on the edge of my bed in the bow of the boat, with my lower legs dangling into the main cabin.  I began to sing Christian songs.

Brain and Donna returned from outside.  Brian's figure was intense, strained as he struggled to look out our tiny window that faced the shore.  He was worried we'd tear away from the bank again.  I could tell he was worried that we wouldn't survive the storm if it continued at its furious pace.  Donna prepared their bed and I sang and Brian watched.

Time passed and I knew I had to say something about the Lord to Brian.  I lay in the bow and I heard a voice in my mind say, "You knew this was going to happen." 

True, I had a sense of foreboding when Brian first mentioned this trip to me. 

The voice continued, "You know why this is happening."

Oops, that was a statement, not a question.  Yes, I could see it' I knew God was planning to use this to open my brother's eyes to see his need for a Savior.  After all, I had prayed and cried that the Lord would reach out and touch those I love, especially my brother and my parents.  I had prayed very hard before and during my trip to Houston.  I had even cried and prayed nearly one whole night while I was at their house.  So dummy, this is an answer to prayer?  Great, God uses something I'm terrified of to reach out to touch my brother, lucky me!  Ok I know why this is happening, now what?  The voice came again and said, "Tell him."  Oh good, tell him what?  I didn't know what to say.  Now when I begin to argue with this little inner voice, I know it is the Lord!  So, I prayed and began to talk to Brian at about a scream to override the din of the storm.

"Brian," I yelled.  "We need to pray about this storm."  I suddenly had a confidence within me that if we prayed and asked for God's help that the storm would end.

Brian's figure was intense, even though it was dark, the light from the frequent lightning showed his figure straining to see the shore and that we were still tied securely to it.  Somehow I remember his knuckles as white from his tight clenched fists.

He was quiet at first, then his response came back, "No, you pray for us."

Quietly I retreated into the bow of the boat and silently prayed.

Brian and Donna finally lay down on their bed and I fell asleep.

I awoke to silence.  The boat was motionless, and it was light outside.  I heard my brother stir and walk up the steps and go up on deck.  I opened the little hatch above my head.  I'm sure Brian didn't realize that I could hear him.  I could see out the front of the boat and it was an amazing scene.  It looked like a movie picture.  A dense fog covered everything and made it look mysterious.  The water was calm and looked like glass.  It was certainly the calm that follows the storm.  My thoughts were interrupted by my brother's soft words.  "Thank you God!"

We sailed back to the marina to find it ripped away from the shore.  I really think the owner was surprised to find us in one piece.  We unloaded our belongings from the boat and piled them and us into the car and returned to Houston.

Brian drove me to the airport and for the first time since our adventure, the topic of the storm came up.

"I don't think it would be any exaggeration to say that there were over 300 lightning strikes that night, would you?" He asked.

"No, Not at all." I replied.  "Brian, why didn't you want to pray?"  I asked cautiously.  I sensed he was avoiding the topic of the Lord ever since the storm, but I wanted to know.

"I couldn't pray," He replied, "Because my life wasn't right with God."

"But our lives were on the line, and you couldn't ask God to help you even when you thought we were going to die?" I asked.

"No," Came the reply, "And I really don't want to talk about it."

The subject was dropped, however after I returned home, my father said Brian told him all about the storm and that he really didn't think we'd live through it.  He told Dad that he couldn't pray about it then because of his lack of a right relationship with God.

"I'm never going to be in that kind of a situation again, I'm going to get right with God." He told Dad.

It is amazing the lengths God goes to in order to get us to focus on Him.  My brother still has not given his life to the Lord as far as I am aware, so I still pray for him, but in spite of that I learned what true peace really is.

There are so many "storms" in life that we all go through, yet God tells us that we can have peace.  Not peace as the world knows, but peace through our faith and our relationship with Jesus Christ.

When the scripture verses of peace* flowed through my mind they became reality.  In spite of the storm I was secure in Christ.  My faith became a physical reality in the calming of my mind, my heart and my nerves.  I was so at peace that I could fall asleep.

God doesn't promise us a peace from turmoil.  He promises us a peace with Him that carries us through our "storms" as we walk with Him.

Do you have that peace?

Do you want that peace?

Click on the text link below to go to a page that explains how to have peace with God.

*Bible texts on peace;
Isa 9:6 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
Jn 14:27  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Phil 4:6 & 7  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.