Four Ways to Find Peace in Any Storm

Mindset shift #2: Realize those trials come even when we’re doing everything we should do!

Today I’m getting pretty personal, but I’ll be honest: My breast cancer diagnosis did not hammer my faith as hard as when my son was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 11. We suffered with him while he spent his middle school years re-training his brain how to read.

It was humbling and hard for him, and it was excruciating for me to watch my son suffer. I questioned God, wrestled with the incredible trial shoved into our family, and cried innumerable tears. Sometimes, I still do.

But I’ve also been learning about God’s peace in the storm. Because in this broken world, some storms will come regardless of how much we are following Him. When I wrote the Find Peace devotional for moms, I realized what the disciples were probably thinking as they headed out to cross the Sea of Galilee at night – something the seasoned fishermen in their ranks would never normally do because the topography of the area often led to violent squalls. But Jesus is with us, they probably thought, so nothing bad will happen. In fact, they had just come off a day of doing productive ministry, so they probably didn’t think a storm should happen.

So when it did, they were shocked and a little angry with Jesus. To paraphrase Mark 4:38: “Why is he sleeping? Doesn’t he care that we’re about to drown after doing His ministry all day and going where He told us to?”

I suspect most of us are the same. When we are trying to follow Him, something in us feels like storms “shouldn’t” happen. But that storm – and many other types of trouble – happened when Jesus and His followers were exactly where they were supposed to be.

In my own cancer diagnosis on the heels of the release of Find Joy, I was reminded that we owe God everything and He owes us nothing. If we have given our lives to Him, our lives are not our

own. But our heavenly Father is also so loving and gracious, that this isn’t the end of the story. Yes, He paid an incomprehensible price for us to have an eternal future with Him. But He also wants us to have abundant life, joy and peace now —and has given us a path to get there (John 10:10).