Calm. Calm.

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Have I mentioned I have a 4 year old? By now, you may be growing tired of my preschool theology. If so...pfffffftttttt!!!!! (picture me sticking out my tongue at you!) It's my stage of life, people, and there ain't no getting around it. I somehow warped overnight from my spunky youth to the Mommy twilight zone. I'm up to my ears in hot wheels, legos, cheddar bunnies and NickJr all. day. long. So forgive me for my far-from-sophisticated views. Some days it's a miracle I can even form sentences.

Onto the story...

As I am loading Turtle, who is moving at the excruciating pace of...well...a turtle, into the car Sunday afternoon I begin my usual rant, “Come ooooon dude. You should be the first one in the car. Why are you always the last?”
He looked at me with his big brown eyes and in the most serious, sincere manner raised his hands and said, “Calm. Calm.”
I’m all like, "What? Dude, did you just… where did you hear that?"
Turtle, "At church Mommy!"
Then he continues to tell me the entire story of Jesus calming the storm. (Luke 8:22-25)


Seriously? Did I just get schooled by a 4 year old?
Why yes. Yes I did.

If that isn’t the lesson of all lessons God has been trying to pound into my stubborn skull for the past….ahem…for a while, ok? Don't judge me.

I needed to hear it (again). I needed to hear it coming from the sweet little mouth of my boy who is subject to way too much of my wrath.

In your anger, do not sin. Psalm 4:4
I suck at this.

You know what else I suck at?
1 Peter 3:3-4 Your beauty... it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Dear Lord I long to be a gentle quiet spirit! Unfortunately, I’m hard wired as a sassy hot head. It is the thorn in my side, people. 

Although, in my defense, I seemed to be better at couching the rage until I had two exhausting little boys. Just sayin'.

In your anger, do not sin.

God didn’t say, do not get angry. I’m pretty sure I recall a certain scene from the life of Jesus when he swept through the temple with a whip, running off loiters and tossing over tables. (John 2:13-17) He was furious that His Father’s house had been turned into a ‘den of robbers.’ Jesus went off! Yet in his anger he did not sin.  Crazy cool.

When I think about it…I guess defacing the Holy house of the Lord is a pretty weighty offense that warrants such zeal. Slow-poking it into the car…not so much.

Oh man, I have a lot to learn.

Thankful for a loving God who never gives up on me. A God who continually prunes me of my fruitless limbs that drain the life from me and everyone around me. A God who in his grace and humor would put the very words I need to hear into the mouth of a four year old.

Calm.

Calm.

Do you know that you and I have been given permission as sons and daughters of God to draw on the same power Jesus used to calm a raging storm? Are you a raging storm like me? Or has a storm brewed up in your life that has you franctic with worry? Call on Jesus, my friend. Call on his power.

If you re-read the story in Luke 8, Jesus says to the disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." That is a promise worth holding onto, friends. With Jesus, we WILL get to the other side...of any circumstance, of my sinful rage, of your whatever. What Jesus did NOT say was how the journey would go.

Jesus, give us the faith to trust you to be all that we ever need at any moment in any circumstance. Amen.