Jesus, Our Chief Meteorologist

Quiet. Be still!

And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

I find it hard to watch the evening news these days.

There never seems to be any good news at all.

It always seems controversial and back and forth.

I do record the evening news but I do not ever watch it live

because that is too painful.

I do record it and I fast forward past

the stuff I do not want to watch,

but I always listen to the weather forecast.

It is the one thing that they have not yet politicized.

They have not yet said,

“Oh, over in the red states we are going to have some severe storms.

But in the blue states there is going to be sunshine all day.”

Although, I am sure somewhere along the line

they will eventually even politicize that too!

Meteorologists are really quite accurate these days.

Rarely do they get it wrong no matter what channel you watch.

For the most part they are right on the button about how and where.

When you think of what a meteorologist does,

they tell us what storms are coming

or what the weather is going to be like,

how long it will stay, and the intensity with which it stays.

And for the most part they are pretty darn accurate on it.

For example, the heat dome that is affecting the east

has been there for several days.

They said it would last several days and it has;

they said that it will affect 120 million plus and they were right.

And now it is going to hopefully pass on in the next couple days.

There is something consoling about

knowing when the storms will come and go.

It does not take away from the fact that storms are there

and they are coming and the damage that they are going to do,

but it does help sort of get ready for it.

Or in a sense, whether, pun intended, we get through the storms. Right?

That is kind of the way it works.

I find it very helpful, very consoling.

It is the one part of the news I enjoy.

But here is what is interesting, that is not so true about the storms of life.

They are not as predictable and

most especially, they are not as predictable to ourselves.

What we need is a life weather forecaster, a metaphorical meteorologist!

This is where community plays a big role in our life

because those around us will often see the storms of our life

easier than we will.

We need to have a meteorologist in our life

and we need to allow them to be the meteorologist in our life

and to tell us what they see and how they see it.

Because it is more evident to others than it is to us.

Especially when we are in the middle of a storm.

We do not really see it as a storm.

We may have people in our life who do that,

but we actually have to be explicit in giving permission

to somebody to do this in your life.

It just does not come natural.

You can not say, “I am going to be your meteorologist.”

That is not the way it works.

We actually have to say

“I need you to be my metaphorical meteorologist.”

I had my brother Paul play that role in my life

and he had no problem coming to me and saying,

“Brendan, the storms again!

You are, you are out of whack.

Something is out of balance here.

You have got too much this or too much that.

Look, this is where it is going to go.

And unless you change it, it is not going to change.

Like you have to make the changes.”

Now since my brother Paul passed on,

I have had to give permission to my other brothers to be able to do that.

I have a friend who does that too.

They all do it but maybe a little bit too often, to be honest with you!

But that is okay.

It is probably good to have a couple of metaphorical meteorologists

because I am a bit of a storm trooper myself.

An essential part of this is the explicit the permission for them to do that.

If you do not give them permission,

they are not going to want to tell you about the storms.

It is not easy to tell somebody what they see

as storms or earthquakes coming your way.

The second part of the advice is

to have a plan when the storm comes.

Everyone in the Midwest knows if there is a tornado coming,

exactly what to do and when to do it and where to do it.

There is no second guessing, there is no question.

They have a bag prepared.

They know exactly what do.

The same way we here in California have a plan

when there is an earthquake, right?

You should have that bag ready to go and grab it.

And because you can not wait

until the last moment to come up with a plan.

Because if you are trying to plan when the storm comes, it is too late.

So you have to have a plan when the storms of life hit.

I do not know what you do when you get stressed out

or when things go too haywire for you

but there are lots of coping mechanisms.

A lot of them are not healthy coping mechanisms.

We eat too much, we drink too much.

Those are are not healthy responses or a plan.

They are reactions to something that is happening.

So you have to have a plan.

Let me give you my plan.

My plan is SEP.

You have heard me talk about it before.

SEP stands for sleep, exercise and prayer.

Almost always when my storms are coming

it is because the SEP is out of whack.

Once I get the meteorologist report back in that I have to pay attention,

and make sure I have good 7 hours of sleep,

make sure I have one hour of exercise,

make sure I get at least an hour of prayer.

Now you, you have to find your own way.

You have to figure out what is it that you need to do.

But you need to come up with a plan

because it just does not come along.

And not having a plan, is NOT a plan!

If you wait to react, you will move to

dysfunctional or unhealthy coping mechanisms for the storm.

The third bit of advice is that all storms come to an end.

There is always an end to every storm.

Now, at the moment the storm is taking place in our life,

it does not feel like it is ever going to end.

But all storms end, there is always a pattern to the storm.

It is good to remember when you are in the middle of a storm

and when it feels like it will just not stop,

but it will always stop.

Now you might say

“Well, my spouse is getting ill and they are not getting better,

they are going to die.”

And that may in fact be what they will do, is to die.

But that is the end of the storm.

See, that is the ultimate end of the storm that Christ promises us.

That storm ends in the resurrection.

For my part, I am hoping that you choose Jesus

to be your chief meteorologist.

You choose your life in Christ.

And you go to him to find out what the storms are in your life.

My most constant meteorologist is Jesus.

And he tells me about the storms way before they come,

tells me how long they are going to last.

And if I do not pay attention, they are going to get worse.

And they usually do.

I am hoping that you will choose Christ as your ultimate plan,

your ultimate shelter.

Because he will be there for all the storms of your life.

He might be asleep in back of the boat, but he is there.

He has never left you alone.

And you need to remember that.

And to remember at the end,

Christ is the way, the truth and life that he is the way to every storm.

And all storms come to an end.

Even if it ends in death but that means the resurrection to us.

Christ will be with us to the end of time.

Today, as we listen to the scripture passage

and we get nourished at this table with the food

that promises to help us to be that body of Christ for others,

be open to that possibility that somebody in your life

needs you to be their meteorologist.

To have the courage to speak up and to see what you see in their life,

so they can be forewarned.

So they can prepare and they can plan accordingly.

But also be open to a meteorologist in your life.

Somebody that will guide you and help you to find the Christ,

the ultimate, the chief meteorologist, the chief forecaster.

So today we come to the table to receive

the the grace and nourishment of Christ

who is the way, the truth, and the life in all things and all storms.

Christ is with us. The chief meteorologist.

Quiet. Be still!

And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.