The Rev Steve Proudlove, St John’s, Menston

STORMS are everywhere at the moment.

We see the huge typhoon and tropical storm that have battered the Far East and America in recent weeks. We experience the political storms which threaten to engulf our parliamentary process. We feel the storms of personal or professional tragedy that hit us, often with little warning. We are left feeling unsettled, insecure, and perhaps even a little afraid. It is so easy to react in ways which we aren’t proud of later, or to become desensitized or detached.

Being in the throes of the Ilkley Literature Festival made me think about some ancient Hebrew poetry from the Bible:

But you are a tower of refuge to the poor, O Lord,

a tower of refuge to the needy in distress.

You are a refuge from the storm

and a shelter from the heat.

For the oppressive acts of ruthless people

are like a storm beating against a wall,

or like the relentless heat of the desert.

Here, the prophet, Isaiah, paints a picture for us of how in the storms of life, God is the place of refuge and shelter. We can imagine the storm-surge breaking against the solid harbour wall, and we can imagine the relief of cool shade and refreshment in the baking, burning heat. There’s something about picture-language that allows us to ‘get it’ in a way that me saying that “God is concerned for us, loves us and wants to help us in our moment of need” doesn’t quite communicate.

With God, when the storm breaks and we can see the terror approaching – the deadly gallop of white horses skimming on the mountains of angry swell – God is the harbour wall which stands, and stands, and still stands as the full rage of whatever life throws at us is unleashed against it. In harbour, we are safe, eternally and completely; our souls are calm and our anxiety can be stilled.

The storm may still rage, and we may have to face it, but we are neither alone, nor unprotected and exposed. The depths have already been plumbed by Jesus, the darkness navigated, and so we cannot be lost. We may still feel the swell, and life may still batter us or we may meet our end; but we are never lost to the whirlwind, dragged to the bottom and abandoned to the deep. Thank God.